Rachel Ryan

Limited education prospects inside Burma

Burma has been in the media lots lately. It started early last year when the government announced huge political reforms that saw the country turn from an autocratic dictatorship to a 'disciplined democracy' where a new parliament was instated. This led to international trade sanctions that had been in place for decades being dropped, and the country slowly opening up to the rest of the world. More recently, this excitement of 'change' has been overshadowed by internal conflicts and mass internal displacement of the Rohingya people who are still being widely persecuted.

International donor countries have jumped on the bandwagon, committing tens of millions of dollars for development with a particular focus on education. The Australian government alone has committed more than $80 million over the next four years. These changes will make a huge difference to improving the dire education system which has been starved of funding (the Burmese government spends less than 5 percent of it's national budget on education) and controlled heavily through regime approved text books and classroom environments that operate on fear of failure and minimal freedom of expression. This promised aid funding will be particularly beneficial for universities which, according to University Press, are churning out degrees ‘not worth the paper that they’re written on'.

In the meantime, accessing decent education for young people living in Burma is still near-impossible. Students look abroad for tertiary education. Currently, thousands of students take bridging programs to prepare them to study abroad. Most will apply for scholarships to study overseas because international student fees are too expensive.

One of these colleges is Kant Kaw, which is run by Jeff (who's running this volunteer project!). They provide a comprehensive bridging programs to prepare students for the opportunity to study abroad. Kant Kaw offers critical thinking based studies which universities in the country do not provide, in a community space where students are encouraged to explore and create.

To learn more about Kant Kaw you can visit our website and our facebook page.

So we need your help to send them overseas!

Now we are looking to raise $5000 to establish an international volunteer program to give Burmese students the opportunity to apply what they have been learning at Kant Kaw but in a new cultural context. This program, which we've decided should happen in Sri Lanka, will present challenges to help them to learn, mature and gain confidence so when they return to Burma, they are more likely to be effective leaders in their communities.

We are proposing to send four Burmese students to Sri Lanka for 3 months to volunteer with two different partner organisations that provide vital community programs. We've selected Sri Lanka because of the low cost of living and existing network of community-based organisations in the country which we feel our students can learn from.

We've selected two main partner organisations in Sri Lanka to send our Burmese students.

The first is Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena (meaning: Peace Brigade) which is Sri Lanka’s largest peace organisation. They promote cooperation between ethnic and religious communities by putting on events that work towards inter-religious dialogue across their multicultural and mutli-ethnic network across the country.

Burmese volunteers will be supporting youth programs and sharing experiences of living in a post conflict environment, in trying to build peace. Never before have young people from small rural villages who work with Sarvodaya have not had an opportunity to get to know young people from other countries, especially those who also live in post- conflict states. There is an opportunity to share experiences and insights as well as benefit from the skills the volunteers bring with them.

You can read more about them here.

The second organisation is called ESCAT which develops projects for disabled and non-disabled people to work together in order to make disabled people more visible in the community and help to break down the barriers that so often exclude them. Some of their programs focus on working with children with disabilities and their non-disabled peers who would not typically have had the opportunity to form friendships and play.

ESCAT is always desperate for good volunteers. The young people they work with have little exposure to foreigners so this volunteer program will facilitate that contact and further culturally enrich their lives.

Our Burmese volunteers working with disabled children in both play and education settings. There is a possibility of some English teaching too.

You can read more about them here.

Some graduate students from Kant Kaw have already gone on to do extraordinary things.....

Mi Non and Mi Htaw have just opened a small training school in a remote part of their native Mon state. Mi Non received a full scholarship to do a master in education administration at the Assumption university in Bangkok but before leaving, her and Mi Htaw set up this school which provides civic education and english classes for disadvantaged young people.

Khun Sai is doing research work on cultural rights in Bagan (a historically sacred city of temples) in response to a proposal to build a gas pipeline that will destroy some of these historic sites. The project emerged after he undertook human and environment rights training in Chiang Mai. For his research topic he will be studying the impact of the pipeline on the cultural and historical aspect of Bagan. He has applied for a scholarship at Colombia University to study environmental rights and is awaiting a reply.

A group of four recent graduates have been asked to organize an awareness campaign on child soldiers on behalf of World Vision. The Government recently signed an agreement signed to abolish the use of child soldiers in the military. World Vision contacted Kant Kaw because its students are known for being enthusiastic and dedicated. These four will travel through Burma, running education programs on the issue of child soldiers and complete the program by putting on a fundraising event.

What we need!

We are aiming to raise $5000 to send our students abroad to volunteer

If you give $5 you will receive intrinsic leaps of joy

If you give $15 you will appear on KKEC donors wall where students acknowledge the contributors

If you give $25 you will get a thank you postcard from Sri Lanka

If you give $50 you will get a thank you postcard from Sri Lanka and a Burmese traditional bag

If you give $100 you will get a thank you postcard from Sri Lanka and a Burmese traditional bag and one vote on the selection of the students

In the wonderful case that we receive higher than our expected funding of $5000, the money will be use to select and send one more student on the project.