Our many volunteers work hard for hours and days at a time loading and unloading bags of rice and distributing to poor villages across northwest Myanmar.
What is in a bag of rice?
$30.00 will purchase a single 100 pound bag of rice.
When most Westerners see a 100 pound bag of rice we think, "That's a lot of rice!" Most of us can't imagine eating that much rice in one month. But consider:
There are two cups of dry rice per pound, so a 100lb bag is 200 cups. One cup of dry rice equals two cups of cooked rice, so there are about 400 cups of cooked rice in one bag.
There are about 170 calories in one cup of cooked white rice. So a 100lb bag of rice equals about 68,000 calories. Sounds like a lot until you start breaking it down.
If you divide the bag so that it lasts one month, it breaks down to 2,265 calories per day. Now divide those calories among the entire family. If there are four people in your family, that means each person gets about 560 calories per day. Not enough to survive on, for sure, but it will prevent starvation!
War means hunger for the rural people of Myanmar
Myanmar is currently suffering through a protracted civil war. This conflict has touched all aspects of life in Myanmar, but no group has been affected as much as the rural poor. Whole villages have been forced to flee their homes and farms, and those who have not fled are afraid to venture out of the village to work. As a result, widespread hunger is a problem throughout vast areas of the country, and especially in the rural northwest where most of our work is conducted.
In prosperous countries, like America, there are government programs to help people in these situations. States have increased and/or expanded access to unemployment insurance. The federal government is or has been sending out stimulus checks to millions of people. Local community food banks are working overtime to ensure that people have plenty of food. Churches are helping with food and other necessities. The result is that, at least as of now, no one in America needs to be going hungry.
This is not the situation in Myanmar. While the government has made some efforts to distribute food to the poor, and we applaud that effort, it has not been nearly enough. Also, when food is distributed, many times it does not make it out into the smaller rural villages.
The hunger situation in these rural villages is becoming acute. People are not allowed to, or are afraid to, leave their homes to go out and work. Most of them are day-laborers, and they get paid at the end of their working day. They use that day’s wages to purchase food for their family in the market.
If they cannot work, there is no money for food.
Many of our pastors and elders have let us know that their congregations are suffering from hunger.
We have set up a special fund to collect donations for these villages. We are asking everyone to make a donation of at least $30, which is enough to purchase a single 100 pound bag of rice for one poor family for one month.
A 100 pound bag of rice is not enough to provide the nutritional requirements for a single family for an entire month, but it will certainly help, and it will stave off malnutrition.
We know that these are trying times, and nearly everyone reading this is being forced to make cutbacks in their normal family budgets. There are economic concerns for the future, and we get that.
It is at these times when the term “sacrificial giving” really comes into its own. Many of us give regularly, but not really to the point of sacrifice. We give “out of” our riches, and not necessarily “according to” our riches. But when things are tight financially is when our faith in God’s provision is really tested. Will we pass the test?
We pray that you will consider your brothers and sisters living in extreme poverty at this dangerous time, and that you will be able to find an extra $30 (or more) in your monthly budget.
Thank you on behalf of our brothers and sisters in rural Myanmar. I know that they are incredibly grateful for all of your love gifts for them, and even more so in this time of trial. God bless you!
Rough translation: “Thank you! Because of God’s love, while His children are in a time of great difficulty and in great hunger, we received food from Americans who love God and us.
I would like you to know that we all are so comforted and relieved by your love and support in giving us our food. May God bless all the volunteers and all the Americans. God bless you all. Thank you!”
Bringing emergency food to remote villages affected by the COVID lock-downs is hard and dangerous work, but our volunteers are happy to do it.
This elderly woman in Hlaingtaya Township would starve without this food aid provided by MyHope.
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”