SEATTLE — In 2012, violence erupted between the Buddhist government and the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar. This violence has displaced thousands of families and isolated them in makeshift villages and camps until the violence subsides. The government views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and does not grant them basic rights and citizenship. Amid this conflict, though, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is providing funding and supplies to give young Muslim students an opportunity for continued education in Myanmar.
The LWF has worked with UNICEF, the EU and a variety of other groups to accommodate more than 8,000 people in displacement camps. Nget Chaung-2 is one such camp, housing 3,335 people. It requires a 45-minute boat ride to reach, and the houses and schools are on stilts because of flood risk. The LWF aims to lift conditions in Nget Chaung-2 and similar camps by improving camp management, community and protection services and emergency preparedness.
In addition to improving conditions in the camps, the LWF has instituted an informal education center, where 189 women have received literacy training to improve education in Myanmar. In addition, 1100 students have participated in a curriculum for preschool and primary level education in five temporary schools, and received school supplies such as backpacks and books.
Teaching occurs in two shifts in which both classes are taught in the same room. Maung Kyaw Naing, a community teacher, states the students try to out-shout each other as they are asked to participate in class. He states “we tried to partition the room but it became unbearably hot.”
The mood in the classrooms remains hopeful. Naing says that no one discusses the circumstances in which they arrived at the camp, but all students have difficulty concentrating. Their living situation at home is not conducive to study and there is no light after sunset for students to complete homework assignments.
The LWF’s efforts have been effective, and Myanmar’s State Counsellor and de-facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi launched a campaign to stop the increasing trend of malnutrition among Myanmar’s youth. However, Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, is preventing humanitarian access to these displaced people and health conditions are deteriorating as a result. Malnutrition has served as a further deterrent for students seeking an education in Myanmar.
The consensus among the educators in the camps is that the government needs to decide what it plans on doing with them. The question of allocating financial and human resources to education is one for the central government. Educators and the LWF are hopeful that government policy on the status of these displaced peoples will allow education in Myanmar to get back on track.
– Brian Faust
Photo: Flickr