Thanks to you, young people in Myanmar have somewhere to turn

Your generous support of our end-of-year fundraising appeal raised more than $75,000 to expand Burnet’s Youth for Youth program, creating safe community spaces where young people can feel seen, supported and connected.

Late last year, we asked for your help to fund a community-based mental health program for young people in Myanmar – and the strength of your response was a powerful show of support.

Like us, you recognised the enormous challenge of growing up in an environment shaped by political, social and financial instability. And you shared our belief that, with the right kind of help, Myanmar’s youth can recover, reconnect and move forward with real hope for a brighter future.

That belief is at the heart of Burnet’s Youth for Youth program, a grassroots initiative that creates community safe spaces: places where young people can feel seen and supported, learn practical skills for self-care and find connection at a time when so much around them feels uncertain.

Together, we have raised more than $75,000 in donor funds – an extraordinary result that will help expand these safe spaces and strengthen community-based mental healthcare for young people across Myanmar.

Because of you, over the next 12 months, more than 3,000 young people will have access to 40 community safe spaces – welcoming places where they can take part in workshops, peer support sessions and training programs that will teach them how to care for their own mental and physical wellbeing. Your support will also help provide access to counselling and medical care in the areas of highest need.

Importantly, you’re also helping build support that lasts. Your gift will enable the training and mobilisation of 90 youth leaders, and fund home visits to 500 households, helping parents and caregivers better understand and respond to the pressures young people face.

“Young people deserve healthcare that truly understands and supports them,” says Burnet’s Country Representative in Myanmar, Dr Phone Myint Win. “Your help has been so important to create new, safe and inspiring groups; to meet young people where they are so they’re seen and heard; to give them a voice and ensure they have the tools to lead healthier lives.”

At Burnet, we know that, for young people, social and emotional wellbeing is built through communities, in the relationships and spaces they shape for themselves. And we know that when young people are supported to heal and thrive, the impacts are felt not just by the individual, but by their families and communities – and by the nation they will one day lead.

From all of us at Burnet – and from the young people you are standing beside – thank you.

To learn more about youth and adolescence in Myanmar or to donate visit myanmar-youth-appeal.burnet.edu.au.