History of NEED

NEED Burma works to address the following problems in Burma and along the border:

After listening to the needs of communities, our training program was developed as a way to help communities restore their agriculture-based livelihoods and reestablish socio-economic opportunities that will enable families to regain control over their livelihoods. By bringing motivated youth together from various ethnic minority groups to participate in the program, a network was born of young individuals ready to spark change. With our motto of “Growing Food, Sharing Knowledge, Building Futures” the NEED agriculture training program has the potential to indirectly reach dozens of communities and thousands of people.

Initially, we worked out of an office and home in Chiang Mai and a plot of land in Ban Bo Hin was sourced to be rented. As there were no living facilities on the farm at the time, the students were transported out to the farm several times per week to provide the hands-on component of their training.

In 2008, with the help of Child’s Dream, we built our school and dormitory, enabling us to begin operation as a living, working farm and fully develop a hands-on training center. Currently our students and the majority of the staff live as a small community on the farm. We are working on about 4 acres of land, of which 0.5 acres is dedicated to rice paddies.

Since the initiation of the program we’ve had over 40 students graduate from the Model Farm Initiative School. In 2012-13, we anticipate another 20 students to graduate.