Some 15 hundred monastic-run schools provide free secular and religious education to village children who cannot afford to attend government schools, and community health clinics operate out of some monsasteries. In 2008, when Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar, causing largescale destruction—including the deaths of well over 100 thousand people—relief efforts were largely organized and funded through monasteries (sometimes in partnership with national and international Christian organizations) (Jaquet and
Walton 2013).