Home | Donor Report | List of Donors | Ma Lot Student Profiles | Photo Gallery | Project Updates | More Information  | | Aek, Danny, Olivia, Professor Welsh, Linh, Dany (in the back),
and AiGhee, Pavis, Agni, Miwa, Cambria (in the front) travelled
to Burma to learn about development issues and provided
relief efforts. | |
In May 2008, working with Professor Bridget Welsh, ten students from the Southeast Asia Department SAIS flew to Myanmar/Burma for a study trip that was planned from January. There the students met with international and local actors ranging from NGOs to the U.S. Embassy and learned about different development issues such as poverty, education, and health problems. The highlight of the trip was their relief effort in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. To date, the group has raised over $13,000 from the SAIS community, as well as from their families and friends. Over 100 people have donated in this people-to-people initiative. Of this amount, $2,100 was spent to purchase rice, dried food, and supplies, which were donated to Apheyouk Village inside the hard-hit Delta region. The remaining amount has been used in an ongoing project that rebuilds a middle school in Ma Lot. The chosen school is located about one hour by boat from Bogalay town. What distinguished this school from the others was that is had not completed construction before Nargis destroyed the entire structure. This middle school in Ma Lot is to serve ten villages, and be the first middle school in this area. It is hoped it will serve as a gateway for the local community to have greater educational opportunities beyond primary education. An estimated 768 school children, most have lost their home after Nargis, will attend. Before the cyclone, the construction process had been led by a local rice farmer named Kyaw Hlaing, who was originally from the village but is now living in the Bogalay town. Having had to stop his own education at the primary level, he wants to give the children in his hometown village the opportunity to go beyond that. Thus, Kyaw Hlaing and other community leaders are extremely eager to rebuild the school. With their hard work, several hurdles have been overcome; we have received approval from the Ministry of Education and local authorities. In addition, we also received permission to have a placard with all the names of donors on the school. At this juncture, a total of US $10,500 has been allocated. However, the entire school will cost an estimated $16,000. Therefore, we are in the process of raising an additional $5,500 to complete the school as soon as possible so that the students can return to their normal school life. | 
