Insight Myanmar20 Juli 2025

Schooling the System

Episode #366: Sallo Polak, founder of the Philanthropy Connections Foundation (PCF), has spent decades building a grassroots approach to humanitarian aid in Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Motivated by a lifelong desire to address global inequality—first sparked by a formative journey to India at age 18—Polak established PCF in 2011 to serve under-resourced communities through trust, dignity, and local leadership. “I always wanted to do good, to help people,” he explains, a conviction that continues to guide the foundation’s work.

PCF supports 25 to 30 projects annually, reaching over 15,000 people. Rather than implement projects itself, PCF partners with local groups who understand their community’s needs. “We do not implement any of the projects ourselves,” Polak notes. “We believe in the power of the local communities and local leadership.” The organization avoids formal application processes and instead actively seeks marginalized communities that lack access to other funding sources. Among its standout initiatives is a multilingual education program that helps children from ethnic minority groups transition into Thai-language instruction, enabling greater educational and economic opportunities.

Though PCF operates a diverse fundraising strategy, including embassies, private donors, and corporate partners, financial limitations remain its biggest constraint. “I want to win the lottery,” Polak jokes ruefully. Then he adds, “Maybe it’s not winning the lottery, but if we can, through your podcast, get some more sponsors… that would be awesome!”

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(599)

Ground Rules

Episode #583: “If you can maim them, you can get multiple people off of a battlefield, and it’s also a terror tactic as well.” Collin Mayfield, an American journalist and documentary filmmaker, spent ...

4 Aug 1h 32min

Open Source Awakening

Episode #582: “If you're having weird meditative experiences, I'll be happy to talk to you about those for free. I won't even take a donation.” Daniel Ingram, a physician, meditation teacher, author o...

3 Aug 2h 21min

Bonus Episode: Shake It Off

In this bonus episode, we share a special online fundraiser for Better Burma led by Richmond Heath, a certified TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) provider and trainer based in Australia, wh...

1 Aug 52min

Never Break the Chain

Episode #581: Tin Tin Htar Myint, a medical epidemiologist based in France who has worked in vaccines for more than two decades, describes Myanmar’s immunization collapse as a problem of governance as...

31 Juli 1h 43min

The Missing Self

Episode #580: Professor P. L. Dhar, a longtime Vipassana teacher in the S.N. Goenka tradition, reflects on his life-long spiritual journey. A decade immersed in Vedanta and other Indian traditions, al...

30 Juli 2h 15min

Rangoon Calling

Episode #579: “I did not expect to be conversing in Urdu with someone in Yangon.” Bilal Hassan, a Pakistani creator and doctor, traveled to Burma after noticing how much of Karachi’s everyday culture ...

28 Juli 1h 42min

Past the Commentaries

Episode #578: Aye Myat Thwe is a Burmese lay Buddhist practitioner raised inside the Mahasi Vipassana world, where devotion, meditation, and study were braided into ordinary family life. Watching her ...

27 Juli 1h 54min

A Border Runs Through It

Episode #577: Thomas Shapwon, a Naga elder and former politician, recounts the long struggle of the Naga people for sovereignty and survival between India and Myanmar. He describes the Naga as an anci...

24 Juli 1h 51min