Myanmar (Burma)
Cambodia
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myanmar (burma)
Overview:
Located on the edge of Southeast Asia, Myanmar shares its borders with five countries: Thailand and Laos to the East, Bangladesh and India to the West, and China to the North. To the South, Myanmar has an uninterrupted coastline from the Bay of Bengal to the Andaman Sea. Her borders stretch from Tibet, in the far north, nearly to Malaysia, circumscribing the Himalayan majesty of 19,320 foot Hkabo-Razi, and the kaleidoscopic corals of the Burma Banks. Myanmar’s stunning physical geography is matched by extraordinary cultural diversity. Most of Myanmar’s 50 million people are Buddhist with sizable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian/Catholic and Animist populations also represented. There are more than 130 ethno-linguistic groups and sub-groups. During World War II, Myanmar (then Burma) saw fierce fighting between Allied formations and Japanese Imperial forces. The assassination of founding father Bogyoke (General) Aung San on the eve of independence from Britain in 1948 was a blow from which the nation has yet to fully recover.
As a developing nation, Myanmar struggles with tragically unrealized human potential. The per capita GDP, at $1,027, is the lowest in Southeast Asia. The UN’s 2007/8 UNDP Human Development Index, which seeks to define well-being in multiple dimensions, provides a statistical glance:
- Public expenditures on health and education are among the lowest in the world.
- Almost half the children, ages 0-5, are under-height/weight for their age; 105 of 1,000 children born will die before their fifth birthday; less than half will complete more than five years of school.
- 22 % of the population lives without access to an improved water source; tuberculosis, malaria, dengue, other tropical-related illnesses and infections are prevalent, particularly among rural populations.
- 45.1 million live without electricity.
BSSPI works with local and community-based non-profit organizations in Myanmar to implement projects in the health, education, and renewable energy/rural electrification sectors.
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