A Success Story — Thanks to You

May 3, 2017

Back in 2015 I visited a small Karin village about thirty minutes outside of Hpa-an, the capital of the Karin State in Myanmar. The 800 families living there had only a primary school for their kids. That’s it. No secondary school. No high school.

Given the difficulties of transportation to reach the nearest secondary school (not to mention the cost), education for most of the village kids stopped at primary school – equivalent to our Grade 6 in the United States. (That will simply not do if we are ever to break the cycle of poverty into which these kids are born.)

The women of the village had banded together, intent on somehow getting a secondary school for their village. They had raised a little money. Not much, but a start. With that money they purchased some bricks, gravel, sand, and a few pieces of rebar. Here’s what their “school” looked like at that time.

Our Myanmar County Director, Treasure Shine, and I met with the Women’s Group in the home of their leader.

After a long conversation during which we became convinced of their sincerity and strong commitment to make this school a reality, we made them an offer. For the next $1,000 they raised locally we would match them dollar for dollar. Two weeks later I got an email from Treasure telling me that they had already raised another $1,200. Needless to say, these women were really excited to receive our matching money. They were now well on their way to their $10,000 budget.

When I shared that story in a blog posting shortly after I returned to the States, a couple of our wonderful donors immediately stepped up and said: “These women have done enough. They have earned their school!” Just that quickly the money to complete the school was in our bank account and soon every penny of it was transferred to Myanmar.

A few months later when we visited Lakhana, this is what we saw. They were started already.

A severe rainy season along with a busy schedule for a local contractor slowed things down quite bit. Construction progressed slower than any of us had expected. Then when Treasure and I visited again in early April this year – this is what we saw.

A newly completed three-room secondary school, all ready to begin accepting students when the new school year begins later in May. Thanks to the Hpa-an Education Foundation (an organization that also receives our support) the new school is being outfitted with tables, chairs, and white boards to begin the new year – and – all the kids will be receiving school uniforms.

They were using the new school for an English class the day we visited.

Soon all three rooms will be full of kids. Here’s Treasure (left) along with a very proud leader of the Lakhana Women’s Group.

This is just one of the many Success Stories that happen because of you – our Generous Donors.

We love to help those people that help themselves.