Sittwe-based organisation looks to provide job opportunities for IDPs in three Arakan State townships

By DMG 30 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
30 March 2022, Sittwe

The Scholar Institute, a Sittwe-based nongovernmental organisation (NGO), plans to provide financial and technical training to small and medium-sized businesses to provide job opportunities for internally displaced people (IDPs) in three Arakan State townships.

Ko Hlwan Paing, project director at the Scholar Institute, told DMG that the vocational training programme is aimed at providing employment opportunities for young men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 in Arakan State’s displacement camps, and rehabilitating small and medium-sized businesses.

“The exact types of courses are not yet known, but six categories will be selected. We will provide short-term training to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will re-educate the IDPs in the displacement camps as trainers,” he said.

The exact date of the training has not yet been set, but IDP camps in Sittwe, Ponnagyun and Rathedaung townships are set to benefit, with the training period lasting two months.

The Scholar Institute met with the leaders of some small and medium-sized businesses and officials from IDP camps on March 30 in Sittwe to introduce the project.

IDPs who attended the meeting said they hoped that the vocational training would provide support and job opportunities for them.

“As an internally displaced person in the displacement camp, I am facing a crisis because I can no longer get rice from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. The displaced people need some support and want job opportunities,” said Daw Khin Ma Thein, manager of Hsel Gyi IDP camp, which was set up inside a Sittwe monastery.

At the height of the 2018-2020 conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army, more than 230,000 IDPs had fled their homes due to clashes in Arakan State.

Tens of thousands of IDPs have returned home, as a halt to the fighting in earnest has prevailed for more than a year. Many more remain in displacement camps and hope to return home, but are unable or unwilling to do so due to the risk of landmines, nearby military deployments, lack of shelter, job scarcity and other hardships.