Spring 2025 Myanmar / MettaDana Project Update
Dear friends –
We hope you are well – and grateful for any supportive conditions in your lives right now. Times are hard in so many places and in so many ways, it is hard to keep up, and sometimes hard to keep open-hearted to it all.
Last Monday, we supported our friends at Better Burma with an online fundraiser to help support monastic institutions across Myanmar. Of course, there are many reasons to support them on their own – our own Dhamma inheritance is entirely indebted to their commitment to the living in and preservation of the Buddha’s teachings. But they also are the practical infrastructure for untold swaths of human and community needs throughout the impoverished country, where the central government provides less and less security and more and more fear and violence.
Please watch the video of the fundraiser HERE, which raised about $10,000 before the final count!
Then, only a few days later, we bore witness to the extraordinary destruction and chaos created by the 7.7 earthquake whose epicenter was only miles away from the village of Wachet, where the monasteries, nunneries, hospital, school, and retreat that we have supported for so many years are based.
Because of the devastation, communication has been sparse. We have not heard of any deaths in Wachet or the Sagaing Hills – though most news media is focused on the toll in the larger city of Mandalay, across the Irrawaddy river. But we do know that the Wachet Jivitadana Hospital, which we helped create, has sustained serious damage, with part of the north side of the building collapsing. We know that The central building of Thit Seint Nunnery, whose nuns have come to chant each evening during the Kyaswa retreat is irreparably damaged, and the nuns are needing to be sheltered in other parts of the complex. We are awaiting more details. But no matter what, the devastation has been great, and the need will be of profound magnitude in the coming months.
It is always the rural areas that get the support less quickly than the more dramatic scenes in urban areas. We are committed to bringing as much aid and support as we can back into the area of the Sagaing Hills that we love and know so well.
We are asking for your support in any way that you can. Of course, donations are fundamentally important. They can be made here directly:
But we also need help getting the word out about other ways of financially supporting, including this fundraising clothing shop where our portion of the proceeds all go to the MettaDana Project:
And Michele‘s wonderful online course with Tricycle Magazine on her RAINdrop method of vipassana practice, where, again, all her portion of the proceeds go to support the MettaDana Project. Great also as a Dhamma gift!
Of course, for the last few years we have also been providing aid to Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) in the Karenni State area and refugee work across the border in Thailand – resulting from the ongoing horrors of the 4-years long Civil War. The Foundation for Education and Development, with whom we have partnered, just lost their USAID grant because of the current American administration’s dissolution of that organization. Click HERE to read the grant-loss impact assessment, and HERE to read their most recent report – including some recent photos of Steven Smith’s visit to the school. They also need our help and will surely continue to be receiving more and more refugees that are fleeing the destruction of the earthquake.
Here are some recent words from our colleague U Htoo Chit, describing his organization’s resolve:
The USAID freeze has accelerated Myanmar’s descent into a “polycrisis,” where conflict, economic collapse, and authoritarianism converge. While regional partnerships and grassroots fundraising offer temporary relief, systemic reforms—including donor coordination and legislative safeguards against abrupt aid cuts—are vital to preserving Myanmar’s civil society. Without urgent intervention, the country risks becoming a case study in how geopolitical withdrawals fuel humanitarian catastrophes.
Thank you for any way that your generosity manifests right now – including the most important practice of sending metta – as much as you can!
We will be in touch with news and developments as they become clearer.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support!
The Vipassana Hawaii Team
