Gender Equality Myanmar Project #17014

Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

by Whispering Seed

Project Report | Aug 5, 2019
18th Report for Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

By Jim Connor | Project Manager

Yoga Training in Local village

18^thReport for Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

Dear friends and Family,

Another dry season has passed and we are in the middle of yet another soggy wet monsoon season here in Kalaw! We are settling into our new space closer into town and working on several projects during this more quiet time here at the training centre.

Offering New Trainings
We have been so busy working on several new trainings to support local community capacity building and help create more products for the café.

With great support from Bruce at Solar Roots we were able to build a small solar food dryer. This now being used to dry fruits, spices and veggies. Once we are able, we will package the fruits for sale, add to our granolas, and a new line of natural teas!!

We also have been working on sewing and offering a sewing training for girls from the local village. Aye Aung has been working hard and we now have a line of small bags, eyeglass cases and cloth shopping bags for sale at the café.

We continue to make our natural soaps and shampoo bars and will be creating a new line of products including natural mosquito repellent, lotion, shampoo, dish soap and more.

We also had the chance to offer a yoga training out in the village where Whispering Earth Training Centre is located. We worked with over 35 youth from the local village. We offered yoga, self-awareness, art and drawing.

We also had a chance to have a visit with the Ecovillage Design Training workshop. Jim was able to share his experiences about sustainability and holistic education with them.

Expansion of Projects
In May we were very excited to take on Aye Mu, a young girl from a remote area in Shan State as our new intern. Our fleet of mountains bikes are also being used and we are working with local guides to set up new routes and exposure experiences to start in the dry season.

We also have started working with some local trekking guides to support them to lead trips around Kalaw and to Inle Lake Region. Our yoga studio in the new café space is up and running, in a quiet room on the 3^rdfloor of the café with a panoramic view of Kalaw. And our cooking classes continue to expand as does our line of natural products.

Another Music Video
We had the pleasure of working again with our dear friend Ross from Music Seeds to make a new video for the café!! The girls worked together with him to write the lyrics and then make this wonderful video. Please check it out!!!

Organic Gardens Growing!
Also, we have a huge outdoor space which has allowed us to grow a lot more vegetables, edible flowers, herbs and more. Over the last 3 months we have been growing a ton of basil and other herbs, many variety of edible flowers including our famous purple butterfly peas (used in cakes, teas, cooking, salads and more), small seedling trees, mulberry, tomatoes, squash, and a huge variety of salads and greens.

We are still settling in to the new space, but looking forward to getting things ready for a positive and productive high season to start in November. In the meantime, we continue to focus on beautifying the space, offering more trainings and working on our natural products.

We are very thankful for all of your support for our work here in Kalaw and look forward to sharing more news with you in the next few months!!!

Sprouting Seeds Family

New line of handmade bags from our trainings

Some of our organic veggies we grow at the cafe

Discussion with Ecovillage Design Training group

Our new solar food dryer in action!

Our new fleet of bikes headed out for the trails!!

Links:

A new video sharing some of work at Sprouting Seeds Centre

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May 2, 2019
17th Report Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

By Jim Connor | Project Leader

Jacaranda trees grace the entrance of the new cafe

Dear Friends and Family

It is hot season here in Myanmar and we are feeling the heat!! Many changes have happened since we last shared our news with you 3 months ago.

Sprouting Seeds has moved to a new location!!!
After running the training centre in our home in Kalaw for over 2 years, the house was sold and we were forced to move out. The notice came rather quickly, and did not leave us much time to find a new home.

After much searching and almost losing hope, we found our new location!

We moved in roughly 2 months ago and are already open to busy as usual!! The new place is wonderful and has so many great possibilities for us to grow our projects and trainings to reach more people.

We are now located much more centrally in downtown Kalaw, close to the train station. The space is larger, with a wooden bridge, a small stream and 3 buildings. It took so much hard work and effort but we have succeeded and the place looks and feels like Sprouting Seeds now!

The building had been abandoned almost entirely for the last few years, so it took alot of work. The main building serves as the cafe and the kitchen. The next building is 3 floors!!!

The yoga studio is on the top floor, quiet and away from all the noise of the cafe and a beautiful panoramic view of Kalaw. The bottom floor serves as the bakery and space for cooking classes. The other buildings and rooms will be used to house the new mountain bikes and plans for a new juice bar and expanding our eco shop.

We will have lots of work to do, but we are getting settled and the gardens are coming along!!!!!

Donation of new Mountain Bikes
Just was we were in transition and moving into the new house, we were so generously dontated 5 new mountain bikes, and also one more for a total of 6 bikes!!!

We are in the process of creating several different mountain bike trail rides, joining then in with some trekking and some stays for meals in the local ethnic villages outside of Kalaw.

We are training 2 new guides to manage and run the mountain biking rental component and we are so very much looking forward to sharing the new project and opportunities to ride out and engage with the local communities on mountain bikes in the near future!

We are looking forward to the next few months and to share more of our successes in the new building with you soon!!!

Warmly,

Sprouting Seeds Family

Main room of the new cafe with earthen counter

One of our volunteers working on the new garden

Wooden bridge entrance into new Sprouting Seeds

The buildings with yoga studio on 3rd floor

Some of the main buildings at Sprouting Seeds

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Jan 2, 2019
16th Report for Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

By Jim Connor | Project Leader

Some of our new products the girls made

Dear friends and Family,

We wish you all a happy holiday season and many best wishes as we enter into the New Year!!!

The winter season has arrived and along with the cold weather come more and more tourists which greatly helps support our project.

We have been busy with many projects over the last few months.

Yoga Trauma Healing Training
In November we co-hosted a yoga training for girls from all over the country. Our aim was to support them to learn about yoga and trauma healing and to begin training this group of young girls to soon become yoga instructors!! It was a very successful training and were able to bring girls from all over the country to attend.

Four of the girls were from Kachin State and working in the IDP camps, (Internally Displaced People) Camps and will go back to start yoga program for those who are living in the camps. We are looking forward to another training to support these girls in the near future.

The rest of our Kalaw Yoga program is growing each day and supporting more and more people to learn about yoga.

New Products for the New Year
We were able to launch a series of products just in time for the holiday. Our natural handmade soaps were a huge hit as were the natural lip balms and healing salves. We also started a line of organic green tea and will expand this once we have a training this month to build a solar food dryer. We will introduce a line of naturally dried fruits and fruity and flowering teas.

Upcoming Trainings
As we mentioned we will be building a unique solar food drying this month. We are very excited as we will be able to introduce many new products and teach local villagers another way of preserving foods.

We will also be building a small mushroom house to teach local communities how to grow 2-3 types of mushrooms. This will help us introduce new products on to our menu also from things we are growing ourselves!

We are looking forward to sharing more news from our progress during the beginning of this new year!!!

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

Sprouting Seeds Family

The girls from Yoga and Trauma Healing workshop

New smoothie bowls on the menu!

Our new organic teas!!

Lip balms, healing salves and another amazing cake

A family trip to the incredible viewpoint in Kalaw

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