Volunteers with one of many organizations that came to help villagers affected by flooding in Bago earlier this year. Photo: Aung Naing Soe/ Coconuts Yangon
This news will come as no surprise to anyone who was here to witness the outpouring of public support after devastating floods and landslides hit Myanmar earlier this year.
The country’s citizens are officially the world’s most generous – again.
Myanmar has topped a list of the world’s most charitable nations for the second year running.
The World Giving Index, published by London-based Charitable Aid Foundation this week, measures generosity by the percentage of a country’s citizens who have done three things in the past month: given to charity; volunteered their time for a good cause and helped a stranger.
Myanmar topped the chart for the first two, with nine out of every 10 adults giving money to charity and half volunteering their time.
The United States, New Zealand, Canada and Australia came in second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Burundi earned the unfortunate distinction of coming last, followed by China, Yemen and Lithuania.
So why did Myanmar win? This was CAF’s explanation:
“As well as maintaining its top ranking for donating money, Myanmar also secures first place for volunteering time – the first country to be placed top for two of the three ways of giving since 2010. As highlighted previously, Myanmar’s strong culture of Theravada Buddhism, in which devotees practice Sangha Dana, continues to drive high levels of giving. Myanmar deserves to be lauded for its culture of generosity but sadly, the achievement will inevitably be contrasted to the continuing plight of the Rohingya people within the country.”
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