"You may have heard about CWS and the ACT Alliance before. ACT is a coalition of churches and faith-based organizations that work in countries all over the world. It’s a platform for its members, including CWS, to coordinate our programs to be as efficient and effective as possible. To that end, many countries, including Myanmar, have ACT national forums. There are 10 ACT Alliance members who work in Myanmar, and we meet regularly. We’ve taken this partnership one step further and have a joint program in Kayin State, near the border with Thailand. We’re working with a key local organization, the Karen Baptist Convention, to help families improve their livelihoods. All 10 organizations are involved with financial support, technical advice or implementing. CWS is helping to fund this program. Recently, I traveled with a group of ACT leaders to two of the participating communities to see the program in action.One of our first stops was a Farmer Field School (which, by the way, is not unique to our work in Myanmar. CWS also supports Farmer Field Schools in Nicaragua). The FFS is a place for local farmers to come together and improve their collective experience. They share challenges they are facing and ideas for how to address them, and they can receive information and support from experts. In this case, the FFS was focusing on how to adapt planting techniques in the face of climate change. One technique is called the System of Rice Intensification, which uses less water than customary rice planting in Myanmar usually does. This is critically important in areas with water challenges, which is most of southeastern Myanmar..."