Myanmar/Burma

Work

Volunteering

Official opportunities to volunteer are greatly limited. A list of NGOs that may have volunteering opportunities can be found on www.ngoinmyanmar.org, although mostly their postings are for specific experienced workers (often in medicine). Don’t let this sway you. Everyone in Myanmar wants to learn English, and few can afford to. Ask in towns or villages to sit in at an English class.

One or two smaller operations have wrangled past the government- and sanction-inspired red tape and set up low-key projects to improve lives. The following two are able to accept both skilled and unskilled volunteers, but give them as much advance notice as possible.

Trained and untrained teachers and builders and handypeople are needed by Swiss-run project Growing Together School (gt.camp@gmail.com), which has two schools based in and around Yangon. They generally require volunteers for at least six weeks. The Eden Centre for Disabled Children (640 399; www.edencentre.org) is the first Myanmar-run NGO working to better the lives of disabled children in the city.

Business hours

Usual business hours in Myanmar:

Government offices 8am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday

Post offices 9.30am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday

Restaurants 7am to 9pm

Shops 9.30am to 6pm or later