Since 1993, World Vision has been partnering with communities in Myanmar. Together we’ve helped families respond to disasters such as Cyclone Nargis in 2008, Typhoon Yagi in 2024, a major earthquake in 2011, as well as floods and droughts. Too often, people face a new disaster, before recovering from the previous one. 

Today, we’re deeply concerned for people struggling in the aftermath of the March 28 earthquake. Children are the most vulnerable of all. Even when the ground’s not shaking, Myanmar’s girls and boys bear the heaviest burden in the country’s challenges—including the nation’s ongoing internal conflict.  

Even before this earthquake, the situation across Myanmar was dire. Nearly 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance from groups like World Vision.  

• About half the country’s people (25 million) lived in poverty.

• Some 3.5 million children and adults were already displaced from their homes. 

• Some 15 million people are expected to face food insecurity in 2025. 

Since independence from British rule in 1948, the country has experienced internal conflict. Several generations of children have grown up in poverty, chaos and fear. 

When it comes to climate change, Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable places in the world. It’s one of the least-equipped to improve its overall resilience, without the help of support from outside. 

Myanmar’s area is like that of the province of Alberta. population was about 15 million people larger than that of Canada. Yet the country’s area is similar to the province of Alberta. This earthquake’s epicentre was Mandalay—the country’s second largest city. 

Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is the second-largest nation in Southeast Asia. It’s bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. Myanmar is home to more than 100 ethnic groups, with the Bamar (Burman) people comprising the majority.

When it comes to earthquakes and volcanoes, Myanmar is known to be one of the most geologically ‘active’ areas in the world. It sits atop the convergence of four massive tectonic plates (pieces of earth’s crust.) 

While Myanmar’s earthquakes are ‘natural,’ the resulting disasters are partly man-made. “This earthquake occurred in an area with no earthquake-resistant buildings and inadequate building codes,” Amilcar Carrera-Cevallos, an earthquake scientist in Ecuador told the Wall Street Journal on March 28. 

World Vision supports many communities in Myanmar through programming including sponsorship. As of March 30, all children and families in those programs are safe and accounted for. We’ll be expanding our humanitarian work to provide life-saving relief to earthquake survivors.