Myanmar Youth Sustainability Training Centre

Greetings friends and family, 

The warm, dry winds from the lowlands are making their way up the Shan Plateau and into the mountains of Kalaw. The bitter cold days of winter are rapidly disappearing, giving way to hot, dry air of March and April before the rains come again. With the coming of the dry season, we are making ready for more trainings, projects and continued work on the Whispering Earth Training Centre. 

Forest School Summer Camp
Together with our partner school in Inle, we will be running an 8 week summer camp program between Kalaw mountains and Inle lake. The camp will integrate all kinds of outdoor leadership activities with a focus on living in a sustainable way. Our training centre will provide all the kids (from our local village, Inle region and around the country) with unique learning opportunities and hands-on activities. Simple accommodations and the enjoyment of cooking together, campfires and looking at the stars will all be part of the experience. It will also be a time of exchange as we bring youth from diverse socio-economic backgrounds together for the camp. 

Internship with Sprouting Seeds
We are opening our internship program for teachers in the town of Kalaw again for our teacher training internship with Sprouting Seeds. The teachers will also spend time out in the village at Whispering Earth, in practical opportunities to teach the youth from camp as well as engage in natural building projects, construction of a vermicompost toilet (worm toilet) and organic gardens. 

We love providing these teacher trainings where the interns get to directly engage with the local kids from the village, putting all their new learning and theoretical knowledge directly into practice! 

Ecovillage Design Course
We are also excited to host part of an Ecovillage Design Course here at the farm in March. A group of 25 young people will be joining us for a few days to explore simple living, a vegetarian lifestyle and connecting with the natural world. This is part of our aim in the coming months to offer our space for other trainings to use our facilities and while also having the opportunity to offer some training. This also provides deeper connections and relationships with partner organizations from which we draw our interns, often offering participants opportunities to intern with us following these types of trainings. 

We are excited for the upcoming projects over the next few months and will be sharing more in our next report!!! 

Warmly, 

Whispering Earth Team