I wanted to share an update from a check-in earlier this week with one of our partners in Myanmar. I am not including our partner’s names for safety reasons and have removed any specific details that might identify them. I’m also not including the details of their current MCC project. I might share this in a secure post in the future as they are doing good work in an impossible situation.

Food shortages in Myanmar are becoming serious. One partner staff said they can’t imagine how some people are getting enough to eat. In some areas, the crops cannot be harvested due to violence. In others, the military has set up blockades preventing the transport of food. They have also heard that the military has begun cutting off water lines. The rice and grains that are core to the local diet are hard to get, so many people are foraging for other food. For instance, yams growing naturally in the forest. This comes with it’s own risks but the alternative is slow starvation. The number of displaced people in the country continues to increase.

There are dramatic electricity shortages across the country. These are particularly difficult in urban areas where newer buildings were designed for air conditioning and are tremendously hot without it. The nights are incredibly hot. One partner staff shared that they took turns with their spouse fanning their young son all night long so he could sleep in the heat.

To illustrate how close the violence is to them, one partner staff shared that, just three hours before the online meeting with MCC, a young woman was shot on the street near them and then dragged away by the military.

In May, a new crop cycle will start in many regions of Myanmar. If this crop is able to be harvested in September it will improve food availability by October or November of this year. That is a long time to wait but it gives people some hope. One partner staff shared that over the last decade of improved stability farmers shifted to larger scale slash and burn farming in order to grow cash crops to sell to the Chinese market. Now, with the return to violence, farmers are shifting back to smaller subsistence crops and plots, just trying to grow enough to meet their needs and have some extra to trade in the local community.

In some areas, the military has been driving the locals out of their villages and then burning them to the ground. The military justify this as protecting the forest from illegal settlements but are targeting certain ethnic groups. The military used similar tactics to drive the Rohingya people out of Myanmar. One partner staff shared that their cousin had decided not to run if the military came to her village. She said that she would not become a refugee, even it that meant she would die. The partner staff went on to explain that in the more remote villages the women and children will flee when the military comes while the men and boys try to stay to defend their homes. The men do this because they feel humiliated if they run away. However, they villagers cannot win against the military. In some cases the villages are extremely remote, located deep in the jungle. There is no good place for the villagers to run to. The military are not using roads to reach these remote places but are instead traveling on foot and using GPS to locate them.

There are still some inaccessible areas, such as the steep mountainous region on the India border, where the military has not yet arrived and the villagers are still able to farm.

The featured photo is from the Associated Press. For safety reasons, we can’t publicize photos taken by our partners. It was taken in February 2022 and shows Waraisuplia village in Kayah State, Myanmar where Myanmar’s military is targeting civilians in air and ground attacks.