Kyaw Sein Htun is a boy in red shirt with cute animal prints. He appeared shy but gave up a smile when he started to talk about his classmates. “I have six friends in my class. But one of them left because he had to follow his father who has decided to move to another village.” He has 12 classmates, five boys and seven girls in grade 5.

Grinning wider than before, he exclaimed, “I’m happy with my new school! I have never been in a school like this before.”

The 10 years old student has all the reason to be happy with his new school, the Nyaung Lan primary school in Nyaung Lan village. The new school building has reinforced concrete foundation, steel structure with sturdy roof structure made of zinc sheets bracketed onto steel roof trusses and extra cross-beams to make it stronger. All schools that CWS, in collaboration with Myanmar Marketing Committee (MMC) built was built with the same building specifications to increase building resilience to disaster.

According to UNICEF 4,100 schools were damaged or destroyed by Nargis cyclone. More than 100 teachers died in the storm and aid agencies estimate that about a third of the 78,000 victims were children. The education of an estimated 500,000 children has been disrupted. Almost a year has passed since the cyclone wrecked those schools and most students in the affected areas are still without adequate buildings to continue with their education. They are studying in make-shift shelters and temporary schools that will not withstand monsoon season in coming June 2009.

CWS Asia Pacific, in collaboration with Myanmar Marketing Committee builds three schools in three villages within Dedaye township, a region that has lost the biggest percentage of primary schools (66 percent, according to UNICEF assessment, June 2008). In total, there are 196 students that consist of 104 boys and 92 girls who pursue their education at each primary school in the villages of Nyaung Lan, Kyait Lat Ka Lay and Mayankyun. As indirect beneficiaries, there are a total of 2,000 community members with 344 households in all three villages that largely benefits from easier access to education and public facility that will help strengthening the bond among community members.

MMC and the construction company decided to build the schools using reinforced concrete foundation and steel roof truss structure to ensure strength and resistance to strong winds and water, instead of wooden structure in technical drawing provided by the government. Each school cost around 14,000 USD including painting work and additional toilet facility. Water supply for the school toilets were mostly taken from tube wells contributed by individual donors residing in a village. MMC also discussed and presented the technical drawing and building plans to the school principals. The local stakeholders have also agreed to modify some parts of the school layout to allow space for community meeting and religious ceremony. This decision highlighted the importance of school as community infrastructure in rural Myanmar (Burma).

In addition to school buildings, CWS and MMC will also provide new sets of benches and desks as needed, as well as blackboards, school uniforms and school kits for all primary schools and students by the next school year in June 2009.

As of March 2009, two primary schools in Nyaung Lan village and Kyaik Lat Ka Lay are completed, while paintings and toilet construction were still ongoing in both schools. The primary school in Mayankyun school has just been built on early March 2009.

“I cannot thank you enough. Now we have a stronger school for our students,” said the school principal of Mayankyun primary school, who was observing the school construction process. MMC planned to formally handover the school to each school principal by the beginning of next school year in June 2009. The handover will also contain more details about maintenance of school buildings. Eventually, the school principal and the school committee will formally hand over the school to the local education authority.

Prioritizing on rehabilitating education sector in disaster-affected areas through opening damaged schools, building temporary schools, school rehabilitation are crucial for the well-being of children. These efforts will give a sense of normalcy for the children, who are mostly and easily traumatized by disaster.

CWS Asia Pacific is committed to continue its support in improving the education sector of Nargis-affected communities in the Delta of Irrawaddy, Myanmar (Burma).