Dear Friends,
Happy Holidays! This time of year, we pause to give thanks for that which means the most to us. Build a School in Burma (BSB) has much to be thankful for: one school in Nan Auw village in 2011 has grown into 21 schools in less than six years in the poorest country in Southeast Asia. If we raise $150,000 by January, BSB will be able to build 7-8 new schools in 2017 and bring solar energy to San Chaung Lay Village School.
One of the schools BSB wants to help build in 2017 is Mahasala Monastic Middle School in Chaung Ma Gyi village, across the Ayerwaddy River from Mandalay. Monk Principal Ashin Khundala (Owen) spent two years in Denmark studying education, returning home to start Mahasala School in 2007. In Burma (Myanmar), monastery schools teach the poorest children who cannot afford public school fees. Before Monk Owen’s Mahasala School, the children did not attend school because there was no school in or near their villages. They could not cross the river in the rainy season as it is far too dangerous.
There is now a new primary school for the youngest children, but the middle school is in a flimsy thatch “building” that sometimes floods. Some classes must be held outdoors as the school is not large enough for the 60 students in grades 5-8. This is not possible in the rainy season. Thanks to Monk Owen’s training abroad and unlike most Burmese middle schoolers, his students can speak English and Chinese and do algebra. Without a new school, the children may not be able to continue their middle school education.
Please help BSB provide a safe environment by building a new middle school with Mahasala Monastic Education. BSB volunteers pay all operating expenses, so every dollar you contribute builds schools.
HOW TO DONATE:
- Send a check made out to One World Children's Fund and write Build a School in Burma on the memo line. Mail it to OWCF at 1012 Torney Avenue, Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94129. There is no administrative fee deduction for checks.
- Donate online. If you donate online, please consider doing so on Giving Tuesday because for this day only, the administrative fee will not be deducted from your contribution.
PROGRESS UPDATE
All 21 schools are operating, bringing to the villages a sense of community. All are in poor communities in Myanmar, many of them remote and difficult to reach, like Hway Port. This Palaung village is about three hours from the nearest town and villagers hand-built a new road so that building supplies could be delivered for the new school. The school opened in 2014.
This year, BSB built a school in Kyar Nyi Kan, near Yangon. An individual donor raised and provided matching funds for the project. We also built Pwe Hnyet San School. BSB worked with two villages for three years to build a shared school where there was none. This school was funded by a Silicon Valley technology firm. With the funds donated by you during our annual fund raising campaign, BSB partnered with Meikshwe Friendship Myanmar to build a K-7 school on an island in the Andaman Sea that educates Mogen, Karen and Burmese children.
Here’s an idea of how far your money goes when you donate to Build a School in Burma:
- $30,000 builds a three-room village school
- $10,000 builds and equips a classroom
- $1,000 builds a sanitary toilet
- $500 provides desks and chairs for a classroom or pays a teacher for a year
- $250 trains a preschool teacher
With much gratitude for any help you may give,
Joyce McKinney, Dan Kipp, Casey Carsten and the rest of the BSB Team
To learn more about who we are and what we do, visit our website or follow us on Facebook.
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