In the heart of Myanmar, life has become increasingly difficult for families struggling to survive under the weight of poverty, natural disasters, and ongoing instability. When the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Mandalay on March 28th, fear and uncertainty rippled through already vulnerable communities. Many lost what little security they had, and for countless families, even daily necessities like food became scarce.
Amid this hardship and with your partnership, GAiN’s local relief team stepped in to bring practical help, comfort, and hope — one family at a time.
Food distributions across ten different villages, totaling 600 families have consistently received aid every month providing roughly 336,000 meals over the last five months.
Near Mandalay, lives Aye, a 59-year-old woman with no family to care for her. Divorced and in poor health, she has long relied on the kindness of her neighbors just to get by. When our team met her, her abdomen was swollen and painful, and she shared through tears that she frequently vomited blood. Unable to afford medical care, her condition worsened after the earthquake. The painkillers she clutched in her hands were her only relief — taken even on an empty stomach because she had no food.
Our team gently encouraged her to seek proper medical attention and explained the importance of taking medicine only under a doctor’s direction. Then, we provided her with six baskets of rice, a bottle of cooking oil, instant noodles, and canned fish. As we prayed with her, she expressed deep gratitude, saying our visit lifted a heavy burden from her heart and eased her fear of hunger.
Not far away, another woman, Myo, was also facing hardship. At 40 years old, she and her husband work tirelessly to provide for their two daughters by cultivating crops on a friend’s land — land they neither own nor control. When the earthquake hit, her husband was away, and she clung to her children in terror, fearing for their safety. Though their simple home in the field was spared from major damage, the aftermath was devastating. For two weeks, the family was too afraid to go out, leaving them without income and unable to buy food.
When our team arrived, we offered the same essential supplies — rice, oil, noodles, and fish — along with a listening ear and words of encouragement.
As she shared her struggles, tears flowed freely. She said that being able to talk about her fears brought her relief, and the food provided renewed hope for her family.
Also in another village near Mandalay, we met Thu (picture below), a 38-year-old mother of three school-aged children. Her husband works as a bricklayer, while she supports the family by selling vegetables from a tricycle in her village. When the earthquake hit, their home suffered minor damage, and household items were broken. Slow sales have often made it difficult for her to make ends meet, yet her determination shines through — personally driving her tricycle each day to ensure her children can stay in school and her family has what they need. Our team commended her resilience and provided the same emergency supplies. Her joy was evident as she shared that she no longer had to worry about finding enough food for her children.
Each visit reminded us that even in the darkest circumstances, simple acts of compassion — a prayer, a listening ear, a basket of rice — can bring light and restore dignity.
During July – September,
• 9,500 people received aid
• over 600 people heard about the love of God
• solar lighting were provided to 325 families
• local pastors conducted discipleship training that focused on trauma care
• two different building projects took place in the country
In the coming months,
• local pastors are committed to making repeat visits to help see these villages flourish and share God’s love
• aid will continue to be distributed to those who are still suffering
• we are helping restore homes for 50 families
In the war-torn town of Kostiantynivka, only 12 kilometers from the front line, a small church called Word of Life continues to gather each week— despite the constant threat of attack.
During a recent service, the hum of worship mixed with the distant sounds of warfare. As soldiers tried to shoot down a drone overhead, believers prayed together—choosing faith over fear.
That same day, GAiN’s local partner arrived at the church with something deeply needed: clean water. For many in Kostiantynivka, this delivery was the only source of drinkable water they would have all week.
A Pastor’s Courage
Tatyana and her husband Viktor pastor the church in Kostiantynivka. Before the war, their congregation had grown to more than 100 people, filling the small building with life, laughter, and community. But when the full-scale invasion began, they were forced to leave—urging their church members to flee to safety as well.
Months later, as the war dragged on and many residents remained behind, Tatyana and Viktor made a courageous decision: to return.
They reopened the church, began holding services again, and started a social outreach ministry. Twice a week, they cook hot meals for the elderly and those in need—often for 30 to 50 people at a time. Their church also distributes humanitarian aid whenever it arrives.
Every few days, Tatyana and Viktor drive 30 kilometers from Kramatorsk, bringing not only food and supplies but also hope. Despite nearby shelling and damaged homes, the church continues to be a light in the midst of devastation.
Water That Brings Life
Because Kostiantynivka’s water system was damaged by the fighting, the local supply is no longer safe to drink. That’s why GAiN has made dozens of water deliveries to this community— providing bottled water for families, the church’s cooking ministry, and anyone in need.
Each delivery means another week of clean drinking water— another week of relief. Many even save it for tea, coffee, or simply to enjoy a taste of freshness that reminds them of normal life.
A Message of Gratitude
The people of Kostiantynivka are deeply thankful for every act of kindness shown by GAiN donors like you.
One church member asked, “When will [GAiN] who buy us water come to visit so we can thank them?”
Our local partner gently replied, “It’s too dangerous here right now. But they know you are grateful—and they continue to care for you from afar.”
Though you may never meet the people you’re helping, the impact of their generosity is deeply felt. Clean water, hot meals, and the faithful presence of a local church remind this community that they are not forgotten.
This water distribution continues to be part of the overall Ukraine relief. Containers with non-food and food items are still being shipped, and homes are being rebuilt. The partnership with the local church has truly allowed the relief efforts to be seen as the hands and feet of Jesus among those who are broken, without hope and desperate for their daily needs.
A devastating 7.7 earthquake struck the country of Myanmar on Friday, March 28th, leaving approximately 3,600 people killed and the affected regions in urgent need of assistance.
Sources estimate this number will rise to over 10,000 and that 18.3 million people, 4.04 million households, and USD 77.5 billion in infrastructure are concentrated within the affected area.1
The affected communities, located in five separate areas and among internally displaced populations (IDPs), are currently facing severe shortages of food, clean drinking water, and essential medicines. Hospitals are full. These areas are difficult to access due to damaged infrastructure, making it critical to deliver aid promptly to these remote regions.
Our local partner reflected on Sagaing, the center of the earthquake, and shared, “They are all sad. They have no food, no water. They have a lot of monasteries [for shelter], but they are all destroyed. Many are living in the [open] – in football fields or under trees. But [still, there are] not many trees, all are gone. They are disappointed. So many dead bodies are still inside the houses.”
Our disaster response team is collaborating with our local partner, who is already on the ground, responding and initially providing emergency relief to 600 families that we are able to access—but we can’t do it alone. A gift of $50 today will provide life-saving aid to a family of five, including:
✅ Provide immediate food assistance (rice, cooking oil)
✅ Distribute clean drinking water to ensure safe consumption
✅ Supply essential medicines for basic healthcare needs
✅ Ensure safe transportation and lodging for the relief teams and affected families
Every moment counts in the wake of a disaster. Your generosity can bring hope and relief to those who need it most. In the coming days and as we gain access to more affected areas, the devastation will become clearer and the need will continue to grow and we will need your help!
Would you partner with us to reveal hope and restore life in the name of Jesus to Myanmar’s earthquake survivors?
1https://reliefweb.int/disaster/eq-2025-000043-mmr
Ever since the start of the war in Ukraine, there has been an increase in domestic abuse and violence against women, brought about by both significant others and Russian soldiers during the occupation. Since many victims do not have relatives or friends with whom they stay with, they and their children are often left traumatized and desperately in need of care.
In the Kyiv region of Ukraine, there are currently five shelters set up to house women who have suffered from assault. Here, they can live for free and take time to recover and rest for one to three months with their kids. The shelters aren’t marked on maps but are secretly disclosed at church by pastors to women in need. The location is classified in order to ensure their safety.
The ultimate purpose of these shelters is to bring emotional, psychological and spiritual healing to women and children and to help them start a new life. They can accommodate up to 15 people and provide women with free access to teachers and psychologists as well as help in finding jobs. Lawyers are also available if they need helping filing a lawsuit or filing for divorce or alimony payments for children.The women do their own household chores, cooking, cleaning and washing.
Since the structures aren’t funded by the government, our local partners decided to take on the responsibility of upgrading some of these shelters in order to better serve women who have experienced abuse and hardship.
Alongside our local partner, GAiN helped fund a playground for the children, a new fence to ensure the safety of the women living in the shelter and a gazebo for conversations held outside in the fresh air. Since the shelters have limited rooms, the gazebo serves as an alternative space for important conversations or meetings with a psychologist.
It is our hope that these shelters and their new structures provide not just a safe haven, but also a crucial support system for women and children in need of healing after enduring violence and trauma. Our team at GAiN remains committed to empowering and restoring hope to those affected by the horrors of war.
Since February 2023, we have been helping those affected by the disastrous earthquake in Morocco.
Rather than spreading ourselves thin and delivering a small amount of aid to many people, we have focused on several small villages that are tucked away in the High Atlas Mountains. These villages are located in cooler elevations so we have prioritized the provision of shelter and warmth, distributing tents, blankets, latrines and emergency and transitional shelters.
Most recently, we provided 200 backpacks to children affected in these villages.
Each of the packs were filled with the primary school supplies such as notebooks, pencils, colored pencils, and scissors. The kids were overjoyed to receive their backpacks! Our hope is that these items will help bring a sense of normality to their lives and inspire hope and creativity during a difficult time.
The ongoing war in Ukraine since February 2022 has caused massive civilian casualties and also destroyed civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes and seek safety, protection and assistance. Few people, especially elderly, are staying at the frontlines as long as possible so that they don’t lose their homes, despite the risk of fights nearby and struggling with diminishing supplies. They are in need of protection and support, and not only in the form of food, and medicine for their physical bodies, but with the essence of physical life: water.
With temperatures over 30°C this summer and very little precipitation, the need for water is becoming critical and urgent as an unprecedented heat wave is occurring and expected to worsen next week. In fact, sources forecast extreme temperatures of 43-47 degrees this week.
Unfortunately, due to the closeness to the frontline, a regular supply of drinking water is not available. In a few places, there are humanitarian water distribution points, but not every city or village has one and for some elderly, it is not physically possible to access these distribution points.
Our local partner and their leader Evgenij are working tirelessly to provide the necessities to those who cannot or do not want to leave. As a former resident of one of the cities along the front line in Donbass, Evgenij often risks his life. He has been in military custody twice and narrowly survived a missile and drone attack. The shrapnel in his body regularly reminds him that he had more than one guardian angel on that day.
Our goal is to come alongside Evgenij for the summer duration with 2-4 water deliveries a week, supplying up to 160 people each week with clean and safe drinking water near the ever unstable frontline.
Imagine no access to clean water during our heat waves. For an investment of $26, you can deliver 100L of water to those in need. $260 delivers 1000L of water to 40 people.
Would you help those in Ukraine who are experiencing scorching heat and desperate for this basic necessity of life?
Meet Sergei Buchin! He is the parishioner of a Baptist church and lives with his wife Nadezhda in the remote village of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine. When the war began, Sergei and his wife made a decision, at the risk of their lives, to stay in Chasiv Yar to help others.
Most of the people that live around Sergei and his family are elderly women over 70 years of age. Life in the midst of war-torn Ukraine is incredibly difficult for them, and so Sergei and Nadezhda assist them as much as they can. They deliver water and food to the old women and help to close broken windows and repair their roofs after shelling.
On Sunday, Christians in the community gather at Sergei’s house to pray, socialize and sing psalms, as all the churches were destroyed. Sergei continues to work at his job in the utility company where they unload humanitarian aid, dig graves, bury the dead, watch over power generators, clear the rubble after shelling and repair the rooms where water tanks are located amongst other tasks.
Since Sergei spends a lot of time working and helping other people, he has no time to stand in line to get water. Thankfully, Evgeny, one of our local partners, was able to bring water directly to his house for his family and the elderly neighbours whom he shares his water supply with.
Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more dangerous for Evgeny to drive to Sergei’s place. He reported that during his last visit, an enemy drone flew at him. Thankfully, there was a strong wind and the drone could not aim and flew away.
It is easy to forget that millions of people in Ukraine are facing this sort of reality, where churches are destroyed, water is a scarce resource and enemy drones lurk around the corner. Yet people like Sergei, Nadezhda and Evgeny represent what a loving and generous community can look like in hard times. We are moved by their selfless decision to remain in Chasiv Yar and serve their neighbours, even at a cost to themselves.
Olexandr Petrovich Bunin is 68 years old and lives in the city of Chasiv Yar, Ukraine. Before he retired, he worked at the local factory as an engineer.
When the Russian invasion began and most of the men left town, Olexandr went to work for the utility company again. Because of his organizational skills and experience working with people, he was appointed as head of the “Point of Indestructibility.” This is a place where the residents of the town can receive humanitarian aid, charge their phones, warm up during winter, eat free food and use the Internet to contact their relatives.
The point was shelled several times, but Olexandr continued to work and organize the distribution of water and food. He kept a small supply of bottled water for emergencies and taught the locals how to use the water filters from GAiN. His wife, Svetlana, stood in the place of medical workers and even learned how to give blood pressure shots to old people.
The couple has children and grandchildren abroad, but chose to stay in the city to help. Only until very recently did they decide to leave the city and visit them.
Olexandr and Svetlana have modelled sacrificial, servant hearted love. Despite separation from their loved ones, they made the hard decision to stay where they were to help their neighbours. We are so grateful that they could distribute some of the aid provided by GAiN. Their humble service has not only blessed many with the basics to survive, but has helped keep families connected to each other during an incredibly difficult and isolating time.
Maria Osipchuk is a 79-year-old resident of the village of Borzoa in the Chemihiv region. She spent her entire working life as a teacher at the local elementary school, but is now retired. Even though she poured her entire life into helping and guiding other people’s children, she has no family of her own. In her old age, she feels the sharp absence of family relationships even more prominently.
The war added another layer of hardship onto her. When the conflict began and rockets were frequently being fired, Maria lived in the cellar for almost a month. While sitting there alone, she prayed constantly.
“I asked God to save [my] house and the houses of [my] neighbors,” she shared.
To her delight, God answered her prayer. Her entire street remained unscathed, but on the next street, only 200 meters away, three houses were demolished by one rocket. Maria understands that it was God who helped her. And now she continues to be provided for through the volunteers who periodically bring practical supplies and spiritual help to her small village.
The old lady received food from GAiN and a word of hope from the volunteers. She even joked that God knows she had no teeth and gave her baby puree with meat so she didn’t have to chew.
Maria was inspired by the help she received and felt strengthened in her spirit. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to hear her story and encourage her that even without a family to call her own, she is not alone.
Through our local partner on the ground, GAiN is providing yellow boxes for displaced people in Ukraine. A single yellow box provides a week’s worth of food for a family, and one box is delivered each week until the family has received four yellow boxes. Our local partner also takes time during each weekly delivery to explain an aspect of the gospel message. They share about hope and God’s love for us personally.
During a recent trip to Kherson, two members of our partner organization, Sasha and Tanya, shared about their experience delivering yellow boxes to communities in need and hearing the stories of war survivors:
“We are driving along the streets and see many houses in the center with windows boarded up with plywood. It looks sad. I remember Irpin, Kyiv, and realize that they are being rebuilt much faster than here. We arrived at the church. We meet the ministers [and] share information [such as] how many people have left, how many new people have come [and] whether there are enough ministers left.
We are greeted by a very hospitable pastor [named] Yuriy. His sense of humor and simplicity help us to feel comfortable quickly. We hear the first stories about the life of the church. A woman tells us about the death of her neighbor who did not make it 20 meters to the house. The pastor recalls the first year. There was a lot of shelling because the airport was nearby. People from the neighboring streets started coming to church on Sundays. During the explosions they continue to have worship services. No one wanted to go home afterwards. They would just turn on the Christian music and people would talk for hours. In this way new people appeared, some of whom were baptized and now go to church regularly. Most of them are older people, families with children left after the intense shelling.
[A woman named] Halyna has a son and husband who both died of cancer and now her second son is ill. She said: “If my son dies, I will be left alone, I have no one else.” It is not only the war that causes suffering which makes [people] afraid and lonely.
[Another woman named] Svitlana said that thanks to the war, she came to church. Svitlana’s face shines because she now feels a great need to know God more. She says that she is sorry when the service ends. She said, “I understand, it’s just that I lived without God for 50 years, and now I can’t get enough.”
[We also met] Natasha, [whose] brother serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine [and] was surrounded by the enemy. [He got] a concussion but is alive and continues to serve. In the first year, her nephew was killed during the shelling in Mykolaiv when he was standing at a bus stop. That’s [an example of] how the war comes unexpectedly, [killing people and leaving their family members] alive in the middle of hell. [Natasha’s] only daughter recently decided to join the Armed Forces. [When I asked why], she said, “because she believes that now everyone should be able to defend themselves and the country.”
Sasha and Tanya’s encounters with people in Ukraine are a reminder of the horrors and trauma that families are experiencing each day. In the face of these losses, we are so thankful for how people are finding community, support and hope in the Lord.