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Most Burmese villages consist of small family enclaves where people live in bamboo huts and survive day-by-day. These villagers cannot afford any help at planting time so the children are taken out of school to help during planting and harvesting. If they are given the ox to do the planting, help with carrying items, and are allowed to rent them out to earn cash, the children can stay in school and the families will still be able to plant more rice, thereby yielding more at harvest time. This extra rice will mean more to eat and more to sell for income. “Renting” the ox to other, more affluent villagers, will be a means to earn income to purchase other food items for day to day living.

After cyclone Nargis, the village lost a large amount of livestock, huts, seeds ,and stored vegetables. The only means to earn a living is to work as a day laborer at a nearby plantation, but because these jobs are highly competitive, day laborers only earn approximately $1.00 a day. They are not able to save any money for large purchases because they need to purchase food to survive. If they were given an ox to share they can plant more rice, the children won’t have to be taken out of school, and once the villagers are finished with their planting and harvesting, they can “rent” the ox to other villagers for extra income.