What’s new with Shanta?

Loan Funds for New Business
We are incredibly pleased at the success of our Loan Fund for New Business program!

Four of our partnership villages started this new program in June 2011 with a matching grant of $1200 from Shanta Foundation. These funds make it possible for village families to borrow larger amounts of money for a longer loan period in order to start new businesses.

New businesses provide families with a significant increase in their annual income and often give women a way to earn their own money.

During the second half of 2011, four villages loaned a total of $6,500 to start 51 new businesses.

Businesses created from these loans include:

• Opening of a general store

• The purchase and rental of a plough

machine

• Buying a wood-cutting machine for

fire-wood

• A green tea business

• A brick making business

• A charcoal business

• A corn grinder for rent

As with all loans to date, there was 100% loan repayment on all principle and interest!

Pigs! Our pig farm project continues to grow. In the village of Yim Bya, where seven families first received pairs of piglets in 2009, over 45 families now have their own pig farms. The grunts and squeals of pigs – future income for families – can be heard all over! In Tee Lone village, there are now 21 families with pig farms and we’ll soon be starting farms in the village of Lone Chin.

Staff Training – Our Myanmar staff are truly the heart of our work in Myanmar and their efforts in our Partnership Villages continue to blossom. They meet monthly with each village development team to plan, initiate and maintain all our programs plus provide capacity trainings for education, health care and economic development. We held over seven days of meetings and trainings with our staff to prepare them for the upcoming year – we can’t wait to see what 2012 has to offer!

Village Loan Funds – Each Village Loan Fund is truly beginning to grow in size, and we held a daylong training for all committees about how to manage the funds into the future for maximum benefit. Together, we shared ideas about what needs their village might have in the next few years, and how to prioritize and budget for them. The villages are very excited to know that soon they will have sufficient funds to continue their own development.

Two New Partnership Villages – Walking into a new village for the first time is always full of surprises – do they know we are coming, are they happy to see us, will it be dirt-poor or relatively well-off? Our time in Shanta’s two new Partnership Villages (Ga Naing Nge East & West) allowed us to establish the foundation of our work through village-wide meetings, priority setting, establishing village development teams, and initial trainings on community participation and involvement.