A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar on March 28, 2025, with its epicenter near the city of Sagaing, triggering one of the largest recent humanitarian emergencies in Southeast Asia. According to local authorities cited by ADRA, the humanitarian agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, nearly 3,700 people died, more than 5,000 were injured, and more than 17 million were affected across five regions of the country.
In response, ADRA deployed four rapid-response teams and began coordinating, alongside United Nations agencies and local organizations, the delivery of food, shelter kits, water, and medical assistance to the affected communities. As of April 16, 2025, the organization reported having already assisted 1,793 families — about 7,000 people — with multipurpose financial support.
The earthquake: what happened in Myanmar
The main tremor occurred on the afternoon of March 28, 2025, with a magnitude of 7.7 and its epicenter near Sagaing, in the center of the country. In the following weeks, the region was shaken by more than 300 aftershocks, which hampered rescue efforts and kept residents away from home for fear of new collapses.
According to local authorities cited by ADRA, nearly 3,700 people died, more than 5,000 were injured, and more than 17 million were affected in the regions of Mandalay, Naypyitaw, Sagaing, Magway, and Southern Shan. The figures released by different agencies varied throughout April, as teams reached previously isolated areas; ADRA worked with the official data available up to the date of its update.
The destruction of infrastructure was severe. More than 6,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, more than 260 schools collapsed, and three hospitals were destroyed — precisely when the health system needed to treat thousands of injured people. The loss of schools and hospitals turns a one-off disaster into a prolonged crisis, because it undermines the recovery of communities for months or years.
ADRA's response on the ground
ADRA — short for Adventist Development and Relief Agency — deployed four rapid-response teams to the hardest-hit areas. The work was coordinated with United Nations agencies and with local organizations, an arrangement that makes it possible to divide the territory, avoid overlapping efforts, and reach those in need more quickly.
The priorities set were the classic ones of a large-scale emergency: food, shelter kits, drinking water, and medical assistance. Shelter kits are especially important in a scenario with thousands of destroyed homes and constant aftershocks, because many families began sleeping outdoors, without protection from rain or cold.
According to the Adventist News Network (adventist.news), the response faced obstacles that go beyond the earthquake itself: damaged roads, fuel shortages, power outages, and the access difficulties linked to the internal conflict that Myanmar was already experiencing before the disaster. Each of these factors makes the delivery of aid more expensive and slower.
The relief figures as of April 16
As of April 16, 2025, ADRA reported having assisted 1,793 families with multipurpose cash, reaching about 7,000 people. Cash transfers — rather than only in-kind donations — is an approach increasingly used in emergencies: it gives the family back the power to decide the most urgent purchase, boosts the local commerce that survived, and reduces the costs of transporting and storing goods.
Even with this reach, the organization was clear in saying that the situation remained serious. "The situation remains critical, with urgent and ongoing needs for shelter, clean water, and medical care," said Samir Khalil, emergency response specialist at ADRA International, in a statement released by the agency.
The caveat is important because, in disasters of this scale, the aid of the first weeks covers only the emergency phase. The reconstruction of homes, schools, and hospitals — and the return of millions of people to their routine — is a much longer effort, one that depends on continuous funding.
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ADRA is the global humanitarian agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, present in more than a hundred countries. Its work combines disaster response with long-term development projects — health, education, food security, and access to water — and serves populations regardless of religion, ethnicity, or political orientation.
For the Adventist public, ADRA is the organized expression of a principle that appears throughout the church's structure: service to one's neighbor as part of faith. When an earthquake brings down homes on the other side of the world, it is through ADRA that the solidarity of millions of members — including Pathfinder clubs — is turned into concrete water, food, and shelter.
This is also the link that brings a distant piece of news closer to the life of the reader. The Pathfinder Club shapes children and adolescents around values such as compassion and service; following ADRA's work in Myanmar is to see, in practice, what those values mean in the face of a real tragedy.
Why this matters to the Pathfinder
Many Pathfinder honors and classes deal with topics such as first aid, camping, emergency preparedness, and community service. What ADRA does on the ground is the adult, professional version of that same learning: planning, coordinating teams, and acting under pressure to reduce human suffering.
There is also a direct path to participation. Clubs often organize fundraising campaigns and solidarity actions; channeling that effort through a structured agency like ADRA ensures that the aid reaches, safely and in a coordinated way, places that a club would never reach on its own.
Finally, news like this helps build global awareness. Understanding that an earthquake in Sagaing affects 17 million people — and that the worldwide Adventist network responds to it — broadens the horizon of the young Pathfinder beyond their own club, their own city, and their own country.
How to follow along and help
The official updates on the response in Myanmar were published on the channels of ADRA International (adra.org) and the Adventist News Network (adventist.news), which bring together the field reports and the figures released by the organization. Consulting these sources directly is the most reliable way to follow the evolution of the relief effort.
Those who wish to contribute should always seek ADRA's official channels in their country, avoiding intermediaries and unverified appeals that tend to arise after major disasters. For clubs, the practical guidance is simple: talk with the leadership of the local church and of the Conference or Mission about the best way to channel donations and solidarity actions.
More than resources, ADRA's note recalled that basic needs — shelter, clean water, and medical care — remained urgent weeks after the tremor. It is an invitation to what Pathfinders learn from an early age: to be always ready to serve, also through prayer and constant support for the victims.