The villages where we work in Myanmar are remote—this particular village is more than an hour from the nearest town. During the rainy season the commute is even longer and turns into a precarious trek on flooded dirt roads.

They also lack basic necessities such as properly built latrines, which can lead to diarrhea and other waterborne diseases. Samaritan’s Purse is helping in this area, too, by providing latrines for families in remote villages and teaching healthy hygiene.

A LAND OF EXTREMES

The pungent betel nut smell is overwhelming, like it’s slapping you in the face or forcing its way down your throat. In Myanmar, it’s commonplace to chew betel nut—areca nuts and tobacco wrapped in a lime-coated betel leaf. Users’ teeth are stained a distinctive reddish-black.

It’s unique traditions such as these that are distinctly, undeniably Myanmar—a nation with a complicated history struggling to find a bright future.

A country where tea and conversation aren’t rushed.

A country where rickety wooden boats or horse and cart are the only transportation to some villages, yet the cities continue growing and striving to catch up with the modern world.

TANGIBLE EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE

Samaritan’s Purse is working here in Jesus’ Name to bring physical and spiritual relief to one of Asia’s poorest economies.

“We want to be an example of modeling the Good Samaritan,” said Paul McKnight, Samaritan’s Purse Myanmar country director. “The Good Samaritan reached across ethnic boundaries. We want to be the Good Samaritan in a way that is tangible.”

More than 26 percent of Myanmar’s population lives in poverty, with the poverty rate twice as high in rural areas.

Thirty-year-old Mazar lives in a remote area where she participates in a Samaritan’s Purse mothers group. Mazar is pregnant with her first child.

“I’m a little afraid, but also happy,” she said.

“I’m learning to feed the baby from different food groups.”

“I’m learning to feed the baby from different food groups,” Mazar explained. “I also learned that the mother needs to eat healthy and to exercise and get enough sleep.”

A DIFFERENT FUTURE

Zae couldn’t stop the tears when she talked about her three children. She desperately longs for them to be educated so they have more opportunities for good jobs.

Their financial instability meant basic necessities such as a properly built latrine weren’t an option. Zae worried about her family’s health.

READY TO RESPOND

Samaritan’s Purse also invests in the health of families in Myanmar by training midwives, who are often the only healthcare providers a woman will see during her pregnancy.