SoyAi Myanmar: Could the End be Near for a Project Empowering Underprivileged Youths in the Myanmar today?

I remember starting SoyAi way back in January 2014. After a two-year interaction and engagement with the children and young adults from three different orphanages in Yangon. After two years of just pure donation of time and money, my husband and I felt it was time to look at a more sustainable way of supporting these kids. After all, we both believe that if?“you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”?Most kids hailed from Northern Myanmar, where poverty, civil wars, and drugs continue disrupting lives and livelihood.

To say it was an uphill climb was probably understating it. It was one of the most challenging passion projects I ever undertook in my life! It was a literal battle from all fronts - language barrier (back in 2014, my Burmese-speaking skills was still half-past-six), culture, naysayers, opposition from the orphanages' and monastery's caretakers who were more comfortable raking in the donations every month, and the worst of all, the youths who signed-up for the programme. They were not well-educated and carried a fair bit of psychological baggage with them due to their background and upbringing in the homes.

To cut a very long story shorter, I look back now, eight years later and see how far we have all come.

From a time when they did not even know how to switch on a mobile phone (we had HTC Myanmar sponsoring their low-end phones for us at the start) to using social media today to make their sales.

From a time when they did not even know where was the button to switch on a laptop to presenting a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation which they did by themselves (in ENGLISH - both the slides and their presentation!) at the ASEAN Impact Challenge 2015 in Kuala Lumpur where they represented Myanmar as a finalist team. Let me digress a little because this was the turning point for these youths - winning the country rounds and making it as a finalist all the way over in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Imagine youths with their background making this trip. I remembered a funny incident when we were at the airport awaiting departure. I told them to make use of the washroom before we boarded. As I headed for the female toilet, I heard footsteps shuffling behind me. I turned back, and to my horror, the three Myanmar finalists boys were following me into the female washroom! I knew it would be fun taking them onboard their first flight! At the ASEAN Impact Challenge, they attended tutorials and workshops and interacted with fellow entrepreneurs, which I thought was good for their self-confidence. But they were up against some pretty stiff competition. I told them so, just so to manage expectations. After all, the other country teams were from financial, tech and business backgrounds. However, on the night before the final presentation, the boys told me, "Ma Eileen, we want to try to win!" Well, who was I to say no, right? They stayed up all night re-doing and rehearsing their presentation. They didn't win. BUT, they did win the hearts of every single person who listened to their presentation that day. In fact, everyone, including the founder of Bookings.com, came over to congratulate them as if they had won. I cannot tell you how much I was so proud of them at that moment. And from there, they returned to Myanmar, no longer boys but men. Men whom I would stop canoodling and let them run the SoyAi business independently. The next phase of their journey actually began here.

I shall continue...

From a time when they were delivering their soy milk and tofu in their grandmama bicycles (and getting into accidents on the crazy roads of Yangon!) to delivery with light trucks today. From machines exploding to knowing how to fix AND work with several machines to keep production running. From a time when they had no idea what good hygiene practice was to full hair cap, gloves, aprons, and, subsequently, 100% COVID-19 prevention SOPs. Again, let me regale you with another tale here. One time, at the start, where I had to do a cleanliness check every day (if not twice a day!), I found what looked like condoms in the trash bin. I mean, these were 18-year-old boys, so naturally, I was panicked. I had not had the birds and the bees talk with them yet! I pointed to the rubber and asked with as straight a face that I could muster up, "What is this??!" Nonchalantly, they replied: "Rubber gloves. It was torn." I swear I went red in my face but still kept my poker game on, nodded and walked away. I swear, some of the things I went through dealing with these boys. LOL!

From a time when they were hiding behind the chillers at their pop-up stores to making home deliveries and selling in the modern trade. From a time where I had to go in with a cane and wake them up at 7.30am to a time where production starts at 4am today.

My biggest joy and the proudest moment is seeing the team lead - Htet Shine, grow. One of the most inspiring boys for Myanmar, at least in my eyes. There was one day when he booked my time as he needed some help with some of the SoyAi marketing items. Ever since I "let go" of them and told them to choose between drowning or swimming, I had acted as a consultant for SoyAi. Well, knowing how much I hated people who were late, he showed up a little earlier, and we had a good and productive session in that hour. We accomplished many things, and he even recapped all the next steps in detail. Just as our session ended, he received a phone call, and I couldn't help but overhear (yes, eavesdropped because by now, I can understand Burmese!) him saying Thank You and Thank God, sighing in relief. So, out of curiosity, I asked him what was that about. He proceeded to tell me all about his day, starting from the morning. This was his day - in the morning; the machine exploded, production had to be halted. While on delivery, one of the boys got into an accident on the bicycle and Htet Shine had to rush to his aid to ensure the boy was ok. More products perished from this accident. There was a rush to inform all customers and clients of the non-delivery for that day. He also had a few sales meetings that day. AND, while he was on the way to meet me, he lost his wallet, together with his ID card, which would be a pain! YET, when he was with me, not a peep as to how horribly his day had gone wrong! Do you know how much we complain at the slightest bit of sh** we go through? He was even so focused to ensure he didn't waste my time. When I asked him why he didn't mention all of these from the start, he said, "Ma Eileen, sometimes it is a lot of problems coming. But I will keep trying. Don't worry." He finally graduated in 2017, and my husband and I attended his graduation. And he got married last month. Unfortunately, this we had to give a miss.

SoyAi Myanmar survived COVID-19. They actually ramped up their sales since everyone was into healthy living and eating nutritiously. They were so, so, so careful with their COVID-19 precautions because they knew getting sick meant no production, which would equal to no sales. It was also during COVID-19 that they managed to land themselves more modern trade outlets to distribute their soy milk and tofu. They were not turning significant profits around, but they were moving at an easy, steady pace. I was very proud of them for surviving this.

But then, 1st February 2021 happened. The security and comfort that everyone in the country was familiar with were suddenly pulled, like a rug from right under them, SoyAi included. Despite that, the SoyAi team still tried their hardest to get sales done. Mass protests meant heavy traffic disruptions. Then came the mass killing, which affected safety. They've had the junta soldiers searching their building block before. Then the collapse of the banking system in the country, which saw one of the SoyAi boys get arrested - all for standing in line at 4am, waiting for a bank token to be able to withdraw money. Ahh, when I got that phone call that morning, I went crazy. Because we never know what they would do to people they arrested. But I was lucky - I managed to get help and found a lawyer who worked to help the boy get out. Of course, not before I paid a hefty sum for his release. However, on top of the trauma, the boy has to go to the courts every two weeks because that's how ridiculous the system is here. Anyhoo.... then came the damn Delta variant of the pandemic. And now, a year plus after the coup, Myanmar is facing an economic crisis with the MMK depreciating in a downward spiral. Further to that, with the much-talked-about Russia-Ukraine war disrupting oil and gas supply and screwing up the prices, Myanmar faces a double whammy. The cost of oil and gas has inflated. Raw materials like soybean have inflated. World Bank said Myanmar's "critically weak economy" will grow by 1% this year. I seriously do not know whether to laugh or to cry.

But for an SME/Social Enterprise like SoyAi, it is not easy to sustain the business in this economic situation without the scale and volume. I'm sure the numbers don't add up, and I'd like to be a lot less emotional coming to a decision. So, for now, SoyAi is still trying to make ends meet after almost a year of losses. After having experienced the joys of growth, (not just business-wise, but team-wise) and in fact, in January 2021, we were headed into a discussion of scaling plans, to have to start considering if we should call it a day can be particularly painful. I haven't even raised this discussion with the team, and I know they are trying so hard to maintain their positivity. What with their country headed for, no, crashing towards an economic doom, it's not easy.

The SoyAi team truly understands their purpose: to serve their communities and continue to help people like themselves. They love the Children of Tomorrow Myanmar (a name I coined when I grouped all the kids from the orphanages and monasteries together) and had always supported them financially for their food, tuition, etc., during those better years before the Coupvid situation.

Whatever said and done, whatever the next course of action will be, SoyAi had also been one of the most rewarding journeys of my life. I had only shared two anecdotes above. There are literally a thousand more in the span of eight years with the SoyAi team. I am also thankful for everyone who has been part of this journey in one way or another. There are really so many of you to thank, and from the very bottom of my heart, I remember every one of you, and I remain grateful forever.