In an effort to get first-hand insights from the local population in target villages, Church World Service Asia Pacific partner for the disaster risk reduction program in Myanmar (Burma), SEEDS Asia has conducted focus group discussions in the townships of Laputta and Dala.

In Laputta, staff met with various groups such as school teachers, casual labors and mothers of school children from their target villages. SEEDS Asia ensured that group members had the opportunity to voice their issues, thoughts and ideas. At the end of the discussions, all groups shared common ideas on existing problems in their neighborhood, such as bad road conditions, food shortages, a lack of job opportunities, inadequate health care and poor public infrastructure such as bridges and fences. SEEDS Asia will convey the identified problems in the target villages, so that villagers can decide to solve certain problems within the project framework.

In Dala, SEEDS Asia discovered that teachers, parents and representative of religious group who took part in the focus group discussion were very concerned with school electricity supply as well as expressed needs for disaster risk reduction training, fixing damaged school and provision of school furniture. In addition, road access to school, space availability for school building and better disaster management plan also brought concerns among the discussants.