Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope
breeds opportunity. The students of Htone-Gyi Primary School need a middle
school. Will you help build it for them?
ABOUT THE PROJECT
We
are asking you to help us fund a middle school in Htone Gyi village, located
about an hour and a half by car from Yangon. Htone Gyi had an overcrowded and derelict primary school that
didn’t even come close to meeting the village’s education needs.
In 2013,
Build a School in Burma (BSB) and our partner, the Karen Women’s Empowerment
Group, renovated the existing primary school and
constructed an entirely new building also for primary grades. Together, these
accommodate 200 students from the 200 households that comprise the village.
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The students now need a middle school in
order to continue their education. Neither Htone Gyi nor the surrounding villages have ever had a middle school, so most children have not advanced beyond the 5th grade. Our goal of $19,500 (half of the
projected cost) will be DOUBLED by promised matching funds, so your donation
has twice the impact. The Myanmar government has made a commitment that, once built, the middle school will be officially recognized and teachers will be provided.
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ABOUT BUILD A SCHOOL IN
BURMA
While traveling in rural Burma in 2010, founder Bob Cornwell
observed an abundance of children and a paucity of schools, and was inspired to
act on Gandhi’s teaching to “be the change you want to see in the world.” In
short order, he engaged with local NGO Rural Development Society and, back in the US, brought in close friend Andrew Lederer to help.
Together they created Build a School in Burma in alliance with One World
Children’s Fund (OWCF) and
raised enough money to build their first school, Nan Auw Primary School, just a year later.
Since
2011, BSB has built nine schools with a 10th in the
process of construction. Photos, video and more information are here http://www.buildaschoolinburma.org. To ensure its
projects are self-sustainable, BSB carefully selects communities that show a
willingness to contribute “sweat equity” during construction and have viable
means to keep the schools in operation afterward.
BACKGROUND
According
to the United Nations, Myanmar (Burma) is among the poorest countries in the
world.
- The
average adult has only about four years of formal education.
-
Annual
per capita income is about $1,150, on a par with Central Africa.
- Myanmar
ranks 150th of 187 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index –
the lowest in South and Southeast Asia.
-
Rural
Burmese villages typically do not have running water, electricity, or internet
connections.
-
The
roads that connect them are often impassable in the rainy season, leaving them
isolated part of the year.
- Food
is cooked over wood or charcoal fires and almost everyone is a subsistence
farmer.
- Formalized health care is either not available
or not affordable.
Because
many villages lack schools, children often have limited or no access to
education, condemning them to the uncertain fate of survival through
subsistence farming or, more alarming, to human trafficking.
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IMPACT
The impact of Build a School in Burma’s program can
be quantified by the numbers of children currently attending (approximately 600)
and number of schools built (10 and counting). The most lasting effect, though, is the empowerment that comes with
collective and individual accomplishment.
In addition to educational
instruction, we are observing that schools are agents of change for the entire
community. Not only does the community have clean, safe, well equipped and
staffed schools, villagers have learned that through partnerships and working
together they can change their futures. An example is the project we are asking
YOU to help fund: the community saw the
tremendous impact of the primary school, wanted their kids to be able to
continue their education and advocated for it. The people of Htone Gyi have demonstrated that they will do their
part -- will you pitch in, too, to help them build their school?
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HOW YOUR MONEY IS USED
Apart from Indiegogo’s fees, 100%
of EVERY DOLLAR donated goes to build schools in Burma. THERE IS NO
ADMINISTRATIVE OVERHEAD for BSB or OWCF. In this Indiegogo campaign, each dollar you
donate will be MORE THAN DOUBLED by matching funds AND the contributions provided
by the Htone Gyi village community.
The cost of a school and its
fixtures varies from location to location, but $25,000 per school is our rule of thumb when projecting total cost. While each school is
different, we require that all schools be well-built with concrete foundations,
windows that provide good airflow, desks/tables and chairs/benches, chalk- or
whiteboards, a water source and a sanitary toilet. In areas where typhoons are
common, they’re built to withstand them. Ongoing operating expenses -- such as
teachers’ salaries -- are guaranteed through available government funding.
