Kyauktaw charity school teeters on financial brink

By Admin 18 Oct 2023

DMG Newsroom
18 October 2023, Kyauktaw

The Myitta Uyin Pyinnyar Dana Charity Home in downtown Kyauktaw, Arakan State, which provides free education for students from families that have been internally displaced (IDPs), is in need of assistance, according to an official.
 
The facility has been dependent on domestic and foreign donations, and is struggling to continue operations due to a decline in the number of donors since August, said U Nandasarra, founder and abbot of the charity home.
 
“We will collect donations and find donors in the open season. We have to borrow money from others as we have no regular income. When we have money, we will repay the debt,” the abbot told DMG.
 
The Myitta Uyin Pyinnyar Dana Charity Home’s monthly expenses are more than K30 million but monthly income from donations has fallen to only about K10 million, with the shortfall for now being covered by money borrowed from those with the financial means. 
 
“We mainly provide education to IDP students and orphans who are facing difficulties to continue their education,” said a teacher from the charity home. “We also need food supplies and would like to ask donors to contribute cash assistance to the charity home as much as they can.”
 
At least 568 children ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12 are studying at the charity home, which is staffed by more than 60 teachers.
 
The children — the vast majority impoverished — are from Arakan State’s Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Myebon, Manaung, Pauktaw, Sittwe and Rathedaung townships, as well as Paletwa Township, Chin State.
 
Most of the students at the charity home are IDP children displaced by past fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).
 
“I can’t send my children to private school. This charity home is located near our displacement camp and it is convenient for us,” said U Maung Sein Thaung, the father of a student at an IDP camp near a railway station in Kyauktaw.
 
The charity has been operating since 2016, with the main purpose of providing literacy to students in Arakan State who are poor and face various hurdles to receiving an education.
 
Due to the lack of donors and rising commodity prices, there are many challenges to the charity home’s long-term sustainability.
 
“With a charity home like this, our children are secure in their education for the future. The abbot works hard for the children to be able to study at this charity home,” said Daw Khaing Than Yi, the mother of a student at the Maha Kangyishin IDP camp in Kyauktaw.
 
Many charity homes in post-cyclone Arakan State that were opened for poor and underprivileged students in remote areas are struggling to survive due to inflation and other economic headwinds, often alongside declining contributions from donors and other financial support.