“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” It is more worthwhile to teach people how to do something themselves than to just do it for them. Teaching people a useful skill can be more beneficial in the long-run than filling a need for them temporarily.

Looking forward to sustainable development, M&AOSB practices this belief in creating shared value for business and society. Since August 2017, we have planned and implemented strategic and impactful community investments in order to achieve inclusive and sustained economic growth. During these three years, our community investment projects focused on developing education, health, infrastructure, and the livelihoods of the community around the project area.

While driving an inclusive development, it is necessary to have an adequate local workforce where we operate. We all know people with inadequate vocational training find it difficult to enter the workforce. That’s why our CSR Program partnered with Regional Government Departments and private training schools to provide vocational skills trainings. We successfully organized a total of 12 vocational trainings to improve the competency of the local community and to help them start their own businesses. A total of 232 participants completed the following vocational trainings and gained hand-on experiences.

As part of our CSR initiatives, we also supported community participants from Welding, Masonry, Carpentry, and Rebar Fixing trainings to sit in for the certificate exams of National Skills Standard Authority (NSSA) in Yangon — a total of 67 trainees achieved a national-level skill certificate from NSSA.

M&AOSB conducted vocational training series targeted for communities from Nanttharpu Village Tract, Kyway Village Tract and Nga Yoke Kaung Town, in order to promote entrepreneurship, produce skillful labor from the community, and reduce potential social risks during project operations.

At M&AOSB, we always strive to uphold positive values and impacts for both the company and the community. We promote our ethical and social compliance in a sustainable manner.

Success Stories from M&AOSB Project Area

As a result from vocational training series, three former trainees shared their success stories from the project area. One former trainee from Good Animal Husbandry Practices Training, and two female trainees from Value-Added Consumer Goods Training have started up small businesses, and have increased their incomes by applying knowledge and skills from their respective trainings.

Success Story (1)

U Kyaw Thu Win @ U Mann Mg Win, a 43-year-old man, who lives with his wife and two kids in Nanttharpu Village Tract, completed Good Animal Husbandry Practices Training course provided by the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department from Ngaputaw Township in June of last year. He gained knowledge on how to feed and raise animals, identify and prevent animal diseases, and vaccinate livestock.

After training, he started out pig farming and planting nivea grass for livestock food. He  reduced animal-feeding costs by applying a method from the training , and he vaccinated not only his farm animal but also the community’s livestock by applying training knowledge from animal vaccination.

He raised and bred pigs himself without buying other piglets by applying the systemic knowledge from the training. He raised a total of ten domestic pigs with an investment of MMK 900,000. He gained a net profit of MMK 400,000 after farming pigs for a five-month period. Pig prices trended downward due to the lack of local consumer market and the current outbreak of COVID-19.

Currently, he is farming a sow to produce piglets and is also providing nivea grass to community neighbors for free.

He expressed gratitude to CSR Program’s support for the community needs. He also awaited more CSR trainings, and suggested M&AOSB to make a market for the former trainees’ businesses, if possible.

Success Story (2)

Daw Khin Ei Zar, a 27-year-old seller living with her family at No.2 Ward of Nga Yoke Kaung Town, is a mother with one child, who is also one of the community-based volunteers of M&AOSB.

She attended the Value-Added Consumer Goods Training provided by the Pathein Small Scale Industries Department from July 3-9, 2019 at Kyway Chaing Village Tract. The training delivered ways to make various kinds of soaps, detergents, glass cleaners, thanaka-based cosmetics products, make-up, and lotions.

Daw Khin Ei Zar increased her household income by producing “Miba Gone Yee”, a dishwashing liquid based on training knowledge and skills. She said that it was actually difficult to enter the market as there was poor trust on local products. She tried to convince consumers of her product quality. She invested MMK 150,000 in the production and gained MMK 70,000 profit by selling dishwashing liquid bottles for MMK 600 per unit.

She acknowledged her gratefulness to M&AOSB CSR Program for supporting community development and also her pleasure to see more interest and more trust on M&AOSB from the community.

Success Story (3)

Daw Ahby Thin, a 21-year old seller, lives with her family in Nanttharpu Village Tract. She was a former trainee of Coconut Handicraft Training and Value-Added Consumer Goods Training organized by M&AOSB CSR Program.

She produced dishwashing liquid after attending the Value-Added Consumer Goods Training at Kyway Chaing Village Tract last year July. She started up her business with the investment amount of MMK 100,000.

She said there were some difficulties with market entry due to her product being local and the cash flow due to buying on credit. However, she could earn MMK 80,000 profit by selling dishwashing liquid bottles for MMK 1,000 per unit. She expressed her thanks to M&AOSB for providing CSR trainings free and increasing her family income fairly, while working from home.