Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

14th Report for Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre Dear friends and Family, We are excited to share the latest report with you. We have been busy over the last few months, but still struggling due to a severe lack in tourism because of the issues in Rakhine State, which is greatly affecting tourism all over the country. 8 Interns from Local Children's Home We have taken in 8 interns from a local children's orphanage home to learn with us over the last few months. It has been a great experience for us and for the girls. Now they have started school again, but we hope to continue to support their skills development. They have started their training in cooking, baking, ice cream making, knitting and crochet and fairie lights. Yoga Classes Ready to Go!!! The yoga studio is ready to go! We have a new teacher and classes are starting now! We are very excited and looking forward to really beginning the new part of the project! Traditional Myanmar Cooking Classes Cooking classes have been ongoing and we have had a wonderful response from guests. These classes too add a wonderful new element to our project. Launch of New Products Throughout the next few months, with low tourist season and the rainy season, we will focus on our crafts. We will work to produce more of our handmade soaps, start a new line of shampoos, lip balms, and we will focus on our sustainable packaging. Kachin Fermentation Workshop We were able to spend a few days in northern Myanmar, Kachin State and had an amazing opportunity to do a short fermentation course with a friends mother. She taught us the art of traditional Kachin fermentation, especially how to make the sticky rice with herbal leaves. This is then used to make a purple sticky rice fermented drink...absolutely amazing and full of nutrients! We are so excited about all the momentum in the cafe and looking forward to sharing more news with you soon! Warmly, All of us at Sprouting Seeds

Dear Friends and Family

We hope you all had a happy holiday season and a happy transition into the new year.

Things here at Sprouting Seeds Café, Bakery and Eco Shop are really moving along. Unfortunately, due to the press Myanmar is receiving about the conflicts in Rakhaine State, there are many less people coming to Myanmar. It is extremely noticeable here in Kalaw.

However, we are very excited to share that we received an award here at the café for our work with the local community. We are now starting to focus on small trainings to expand our natural products through the Eco Shop part of the project. Trainings in sewing, knitting, crochet, lip balm and hard soaps is now expanding to reach more people.

We are also so happy to welcome 3 new staff to the project, Thandar Myo, Shwe Yi and Chaw Kalyar. There are an amazing addition to the family here at Sprouting Seeds. We have had a few chances to take our days off to travel around Kalaw to have fun together after working hard all week together!

We also had the chance to share about all our work here at Sprouting Seeds at a Regional Sustainable Tourism Conference here in Kalaw. Aye Aung had another chance to practice her public speaking.

We launched a new menu at the first of the year and have had a wonderful response to all the new items. After a week or two of the new menu we have moved from are regular place at number 2 on trip advisor to now be several weeks at #1! We are so proud of the girls and all their hard work…its paying off!!!

We are also excited to share that we have the space above the café ready to begin teaching yoga! We are waiting to find the right teacher to help us who will be able to work with the girls in the centre, local community members as well as some of the tourists passing through town.

And we have been offering cooking classes now for over a month and also have received a huge response from the groups that have attended.

With the end of the cold season approaching we are also starting to plant more vegetables around the café and grow more fruits including several passion fruit vines.

We are excited to share more with you as we grow over the next few months!!

Warmly

The Sprouting Seeds Family

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