Cam Thi Thao is a Thai woman from Doi 9 village in remote Phuc Than commune in northern Vietnam. For their daily sustenance, Thao’s five-member family relies on her husband’s family land to grow rice. But the yield is not enough to support the family, which includes two growing children and Thao’s mother-in-law. To feed […]
Daw Aye May, a 56-year-old widow, used to make a living selling herbs in an open-air market. That was before Covid-19 public health restrictions curtailed public gatherings at large markets and travel beyond township borders. In the village of Sar Phyu Su, 40 miles north of Yangon, Myanmar, salaried job opportunities are limited. And when […]
With funding from Later-Day Saint Charities’ 2020 holiday Giving Machines, CWS and Cambodian partners have been able to work with some of Cambodia’s most acutely vulnerable subsistence farmers this year. These are families who own tiny land plots at best. Many have no land at all. In the remote rural areas where CWS works, all […]
Farmer Ko Ye Naing is always looking for opportunities to improve his family’s livelihood. The 38-year-old father of two and his wife, Ma Nandar Win, live on a three-acre farm 55 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar. They grow about 700 pounds of chili peppers, which they sell for about $500 yearly. He also works as […]
Nurmita lives in a Central Sulawesi village where, before a devastating earthquake in 2018, she sold traditional cakes to earn a nice income. In the disaster Nurmita lost her baking equipment and supplies … and her livelihood. Her situation was not uncommon, unfortunately. And it has taken quite some time for people to recover and […]
Things are a bit business unusual for CWS these days, as they are for much of the world. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is slowing us down and causing us to reschedule larger group activities. These include Community-led Total Sanitation start-up events and cross-community sharing and learning field trips. But, in most rural areas where CWS […]
CWS and the YMCA of Maubin Township in Myanmar recently launched a vocational education and training pilot for 20 women who will learn how to sew over the course of eight weeks with 270 hours in the workshop. Already during their first week, students reviewed manual sewing machine parts: switches, levers, pedals, etc. to learn […]
You may have heard about CWS and the ACT Alliance before. ACT is a coalition of churches and faith-based organizations that work in countries all over the world. It’s a platform for its members, including CWS, to coordinate our programs to be as efficient and effective as possible. To that end, many countries, including Myanmar, […]
Bou Doeun, who is 46 years old, lives with her husband and their eight young children in Boeng Ahrak village of Battambang province in western Cambodia. Besides being an exceptionally large family, even by rural Cambodian standards, this family is landless. With help from local government and the Buddhis community pagoda, they built a small […]