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This little girl has a brighter future. Read more...
Pact has been implementing development programs in Myanmar for over a decade. Despite the moderate success of the Myanmar economic reforms of the 1980s, the absence of affordable capital in rural areas is an enormous economic growth constraint for the nearly 80 percent of the population who live at a subsistence level and rely on small and microenterprise activities for supplemental sources of income and employment. Now reaching nearly 300,000 poor in the Ayerwaddy River Delta, the Dry Zone, and Shan State, and with a staff of almost 1000, Pact's Myanmar poverty alleviation efforts address livelihoods' security and health-HIV/AIDS,TB, and Primary Health Care (PHC). In 2001 Pact expanded its poverty alleviation operations to include the provision of PHC services in the Dry Zone based on experience gained working with rural communities over the years. Aiming to improve access to economic and health opportunities for Myanmar's poor, Pact builds and strengthens existing community associations or groups to enable community members to provide for their own basic needs. This approach contributes to the sustainability of Pact's programs while meeting three interconnected needs:
Currently, Pact's programs in Myanmar receive funding from UNDP/UNOPS, the Unocal Foundation, the World Food Program, and Oxfam. In the aftermath of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis with thesupport of many donors, Pact was able to rapidly shift focus for an early response to the devastated areas providing access to drinking water, medical care, food and shelter to the hardest hit areas. As a result of the disaster many Pact programs were put on hold and much of Pact's staff took part in emergency relief being coordinated by the United Nations. Since then Pact has been able to resume many vital long term programs. |






