The past year in Myanmar: It’s surreal to think of what life was like for all of us a year ago, just as news of the Coronavirus began to emerge around the world.
Sandra's Story: How Business Blossoms in Myanmar
Messages from Myanmar: Stories of Hope
Thank You for Helping Five Talents Start Strong
Love, Lessons, and Legacy
What Business as Mission Really Means
Life on the Water's Edge: Reflections from Myanmar
Last week, we finished our travels in Southeast Asia, working with program leaders there and visiting entrepreneurs in the low-lying Delta region.
As we approached the homes of the savings/loan group members, we started to see small homes, like the one pictured here, hovering on stilts above dark waters that looked a bit threatening. I found myself wondering if there was disease or snakes or other things I didn’t want to know about in the waters. And I assumed that the people lived near the water because of a lack of space on dry land.
Then we met with the members of the savings/loan groups and saw how excited they were to show us their businesses. We saw how they used the nearby waters as a source of life to help their businesses thrive: fish ponds; duck farms; papaya farms and more.
I keep learning from our partners that I need to trust and remember that we are each given the talents we need to thrive and to do good work.
-Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director
Filling a Void - Lessons from Souheast Asia
This week, a team of three from Five Talents USA is in the midst of two weeks of meetings in Southeast Asia. What a learning experience and a blessing it has been.
It’s not easy to run micro-enterprise programs in some of these areas, but our partners are filling a void where no one else is meeting the needs of many of the poor. Our partners are working with the whole person, providing a package of services, starting with savings and loans, that helps each participant improve their lives and the lives of their families.
Perhaps most important, we see how this is not a one-way street. We enjoyed worshiping with a group of our partners this morning. And as is so often the case, we were supported more than we could support. I spoke with a priest, shown here, after the service who told us how his congregation had been praying this week for those in the US suffering the effects of Hurricane Florence.
How good it is to be able to work with our brothers and sisters around the world.
-Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director