3 April, 2025
Facts about the Myanmar earthquake
Learn how the earthquake is adding to the challenges facing Myanmar’s children
What is happening in Myanmar?
On Friday 28 March 2025, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Sagaing region of Myanmar, taking thousands of lives and destroying vital infrastructure in both Myanmar and Thailand. Millions of children and families are in urgent need of assistance.
For Myanmar’s children, this disaster comes on top of an already challenging humanitarian landscape. Years of conflict, displacement, and economic instability have left many without access to food, clean water, or education. As of last year, 18.6 million people, including 6 million children, required humanitarian assistance. Now, the recent earthquake has exacerbated their suffering, pushing them further into crisis.
FAQs: Everything you need to know about the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand
Fast facts: Myanmar and Thailand earthquake
- The powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar at around 1:30 PM local time (6:30 AM UK) on Friday 28 March.
- More than 2,700 people have lost their lives, with numbers expected to rise as recovery efforts continue.
- This is the strongest recorded earthquake since the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquake.
- The quake struck at a depth of 10 km in Sagaing, Myanmar, an area home to 1.3 million internally displaced people. It was followed by multiple aftershocks, adding to the devastation.
- In Thailand, cities including Bangkok and Chiang Mai were affected, with building collapses and loss of life reported.
- Years of conflict in Myanmar have left communities vulnerable, and the earthquake is worsening existing hardships - especially for children already facing displacement, malnutrition, and limited access to healthcare.
How is the earthquake impacting children?
We are deeply concerned about how this earthquake will affect children. In emergencies, children are often the most vulnerable - facing challenges such as limited access to food, healthcare, and safe shelter, as well as the risk of being separated from their families or caregivers.
Even before the earthquake, children in Myanmar were enduring growing hardships due to ongoing conflict.
- 3.4 million people – including children – are internally displaced, many of them forced to flee their homes due to conflict and instability.
- Millions of children have lost access to education due to conflict and displacement, with up to 4.5 million children affected, according to the United Nations.
- 12.9 million people, including 4.5 million children, are facing food insecurity and severe hunger, according to UNOCHA.
- Myanmar is the second most climate-vulnerable country in the world, frequently experiencing cyclones, floods, droughts, and extreme heat. The earthquake has added another layer of hardship, leaving even more children at risk.
This disaster will only worsen conditions for children – threatening their safety, wellbeing, and future.
How is World Vision responding?
With over 30 years experience of humanitarian support in Myanmar, we are urgently working to understand how the earthquake is impacting people, especially children.
The most urgent needs relate to immediate life-saving interventions like food, clean water, and essential items such as warm blankets and hygiene kits.
Here’s what we are already doing:
Despite the challenges, we're urgently mobilising our response to deliver the following support:
- Emergency food assistance including rice, cooking oil, chickpeas, and salt.
- Clean drinking water solutions, including Proctor & Gamble filtration sachets.
- Hygiene kits. Families left without shelter will receive hygiene kits and non-food items like warm blankets, water containers and kitchen facilities.
- Child Protection. We are helping to provide safe spaces for children, recognising that risks for children will be higher due to the possible displacement.
With Myanmar’s infrastructure already weakened, delivering aid in the wake of the earthquake in Myanmar will be a significant challenge. But urgent action is needed to protect the most vulnerable. Your support enables us to reach more children with life-saving interventions.
How you can help
Myanmar’s children need urgent support. Here’s how you can make a difference:
- Donate. Just moments after the earthquake struck, our local teams were on the ground providing life-saving support to those in immediate need. With your donations, we aim to help at least half a million people with essentials such as food, water and hygiene kits, as well as ensuring safety and protection for the most vulnerable – especially women and children. Please give today.
- Pray for the children and families affected by this earthquake and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Find five ways you can pray for the situation here.
Every child deserves safety, security, and hope for the future. In this time of crisis, please stand with Myanmar’s children and ensure they are not forgotten.
