Friends, donors and potential donors alike have asked me to explain how Care for Peace, a Marin-based nonprofit, is able to continue building a prototype “Healthy Village” in rural Myanmar (Burma), while the publicized persecution of the Myanmar government towards a nationless minority of 1.1 million refugees must certainly be affecting our progress.
The current situation in Myanmar does not affect our progress.
Care for Peace is fortunate to have donors who understand the inseparable connection between care and peace. Providing care through public health, education and enterprise services to the underserved people of the world results in greater peace within and between nations.
Our Healthy Village project is not that much different from what many other non-government organizations are doing throughout Myanmar and the world to provide relief and development opportunities to people who live within or near conflicts, abject poverty or shifting political landscapes.
There is a great need for our Healthy Village project, since most in Myanmar are distressingly lacking even the most basic health care.
Of the 53 million people who live there, 35 million (67 percent) are impoverished villagers.
According to the United Nations ranking of health systems, life expectancy is low, ranking at 170 of 191 countries.
About 35 percent of children under the age of five have stunted growth.
Among developing nations, people in rural Myanmar are among the poorest, hungriest, least educated, and geographically isolated.
Care for Peace has already succeeded in bringing the Healthy Village concept to fruition. Thanks to the generosity of our board and advisors, The Porter Foundation and The Vimy Foundation, we are now serving rural villagers with our Mobile Health Van.
Happily, we have also built the prototype Healthy Village Rural Health Center that will be surrounded by schools, community and senior centers, housing, agriculture and aquaculture farms, stock animal ranches, and micro-economy businesses.
Myanmar is a “new country” that is only four years into emerging from a totalitarian military state to a democratic union.
Peace hangs in the balance. It is the resolve of Care for Peace to help tip the balance. It’s all in the name: “Care for Peace.”
To care with our hearts and provide care with our hands is what makes the process of attaining peace worthwhile.
It must be.
Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Mother Teresa, among other notable caregivers, will always be remembered for how they helped relieve pain and suffering, and helped bring peace to millions of sick, wounded and impoverished people.
Peace may be the highest achievement of the human spirit. The Nobel Peace Prize is the most respected award in the world bestowed on an individual or group for having actively initiated a process that promotes peace.
John Lennon’s timeless message “Give Peace a Chance” is the song of choice for war protestors. And “Rest in Peace” is our farewell wish for loved ones.
To care for peace is to accept the principle that a society that is dedicated to caring is the most rewarding path to lasting peace.
Upon completion of our first project, Care for Peace has agreed to facilitate the development of as many Healthy Villages throughout Myanmar as there are villages prepared to build their own sustainable care communities.
It all starts with one Healthy Village.
It takes a whole village to change the world.