Home | Donor Report | List of Donors | Ma Lot Student Profiles | Photo Gallery | Project Updates | More Information Recovery and Construction: January 2009 Report from the Irrawaddy Delta Warm wishes to you in the New Year! I am delighted to report that the Ma Lot Middle School in the Bogalay Township has now been constructed and will open in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to you and the hard work of the local community in Ma Lot! This wonderful news reflects a collaborative people-to-people effort of over 150 donors from the SAIS community and the ingenuity of the local residents, led by Kyaw H. Thanks to the SAIS friends and alumni network in Yangon/Rangoon, I was able to make a trip to the village in early January and see for myself the progress. I was able to make a donation of $3,000 raised last semester (this was in addition to another $1,000 forwarded in September ) needed to complete the floors, desks, and bathrooms. The school building – made of quality materials – has four rooms and is located next to the primary school reconstructed by UNICEF. The teachers have been using a tent and primary school for their lessons and are eager to move into the new building and open the school to the neighboring villages. With recent additional donations, estimated at $750, we have seed funds to start a library in the school and are in the process of collecting teaching materials to share with the school later this spring. By May 2009, the anniversary month of Cyclone Nargis, we hope to provide the school with the supplies it needs to enhance teaching and deepen mutual understanding. I have personally agreed to support the top student of the class to attend secondary school. Words cannot describe the warm welcome I received on my visit on behalf of our collaborative effort. After the woes of rural travel – two car breakdowns due to the roads – we arrived three hours late for a sumptuous local lunch. On our arrival teachers, parents and students were at the jetty; it was like meeting old friends. I had a long dialogue with the students, and the level of optimism and hope has improved considerably. The students spoke out with greater confidence and engaged on a variety of issues from airplane travel to shared dreams. Along the way, I also had an opportunity to visit the village and monastery where we made our donation of immediate post-cyclone assistance. This community reported a bumper rice crop and improved economic conditions, as the recovery has set in. Both communities extend a warm welcome to donors who would like to visit. The conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta have improved significantly, with increases in rice production and investments in housing and reconstruction. The level of humanitarian assistance coming into the region is robust and is working effectively through the ASEAN tripartite group, international and local NGOS. Although the challenges on many levels remain high, the positive signs of recovery were obvious, from the construction of medical centers to improved food security. Each of you is responsible for assisting in this recovery effort. Thank you. Special thanks should be given to Shelley Su at SAIS who managed the donations last semester, Ai Ghee Ong who spearheaded most of the donation efforts, Jeff Barrus and Linh Le who donated their time for the construction of this website and Daniel and Mo Kyaw who accompanied me into the Delta this January. I wish all of you the best. Please contact me directly at bbwelsh@jhu.edu if you have any other questions about the Ma Lot Middle School. Since I will be leaving SAIS and our goal of the school construction was accomplished, this will be my last donation report. Bridget Welsh
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University-SAIS | 
