3.3.Dl.9 WH Community Projects - Success Stories

8/11/2019 3.3.Dl.9 WH Community Projects - Success Stories

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Wide Horizons Community Projects 2013-14

Shelter from the Storm: A New Roof for New Blood School

Each year, rainy season brings clean

air, lush vegetation, and a welcome

respite from the heat, dust, and firesthat plague Mae Sot during the

summer. But for the boarding

students at New Blood school, the

rain also brings sleepless nights,

damp clothes, and wet supplies as

the water leaks in from the thatch

roof. The leaking water disrupts

kindergarten class during the

daytime, and it soaks the bedding of

the 35 boarding students who sleepin the classroom each night.

Because the funds that support migrant schools in Mae Sot are rapidly evaporating and moving

elsewhere, the New Blood headmaster, Zaw Lwin Oo, faced some difficult budget decisions. In

order to repair the roof of the classroom cum dormitory, he would have had to cut funding

from more essential needs like food, teacher salaries, or school supplies.

Fortunately, Wide Horizons

students put their classroom

learning to use and wrote andsubmitted a funding proposal for a

new roof to Room to Grow

Foundation. Excited to work with

a school they had funded in the

past, Room to Grow accepted

Wide Horizons funding proposal

to repair and rebuild the roof.

After the new roof was completed

the teacher who sleeps in the

building expressed herappreciation. She said shes very

happy that she doesnt have to

worry about the roof leaking on

the students, which will help them

get a good nights rest and stay focused and attentive in their classrooms during the day.

New Blood School with the Old Roof

New Blood School with the New Roof


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Beads of Opportunity: Jewelry making raises funds and gives an artistic life skill

to the students at BHSOH.

Like many of the migrant schools in the Mae Sot area, BHSOH has suffered from significant

funding cuts as donors dry up or move their money inside Burma. In order to address painful

funding deficits, migrant schools need to find new ways to generate the revenues needed to

run their schools.In September 2013, Wide Horizons students sat down with BHSOH teachers and students to

think about what the school could do to help mitigate the damage the funding cuts did to the

school. Together the group proposed doing a fancy beaded jewelry project to Room to Grow

foundation, and the Room to Grow supported the idea. In December 2013, Wide Horizon

students received a Training of Trainers from two of WH students who already know how to

make jewelry. Then the WH students went to BHSOH and taught 75 students and 8 teachers

how to make several different kinds of fancy beaded jewelry including necklaces, bracelets, and

earrings.

The BHSOH students made 120 differentpieces during the weeklong training, and they have

already generated more that 6000 bahtin profits from the sales of their jewelry to visitors andfriends. The jewelry making project not only provides a way for BHSOH to generate income,

but it also provides the students with an productive and artistic outlet in a learning

environment that has no resources for teaching art. In his thank you speech, BHSOH school

director Khing Oo Maung said Now we are trying to stand by ourselves and this training skill

will be useful for our schoolsfunding, and you can use these skills for your future.


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Financial Literacy Training teaches migrant women to save money and achieve goals

For the women who live in the Paseidan community, life can feel very restricted and

opportunity sometimes seems nonexistent. The entire community is affiliated with an

agricultural supply business that employs nearly all of the men in the community. While the

men earn between 100 and 150 baht a day loading and unloading trucks, the women are

confined to small plot of land provided to them by the company where they have built theirbamboo, tin, and rice bag shacks.

Because the company provides no documentation to them, the women of Paseidan cannot

leave the community, venture to the market to buy vegetables, or get medical care at the

health clinic without fear of deportation or having to pay expensive fines at police checkpoints.

The families of Paseidan survive on very limited incomes. They have to stretch each baht to pay

for their basic living necessities.

After meeting several times with the community and conducting a needs assessment, WH

students teamed up with Khom Loy Foundation to give the women in Paseidan financial literacy

training. Khom Loy first trained 24 WH students on how to give the trainings in the community.Then WH students held a week long training in Paseidan. 46 women attended the entire

training and learned how to make savings plans, how to manage their income and expenses,

and they created short, medium, and long term savings goals. A month after WH gave the

training, many women were saving money in an effort to reach their goals. One participant,

Cho Cho Lwin, said that she can now save money every day. She said she learned a lot in the

training and hopes to save enough money so she can go back home to Burma with her family.


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New Dormitories provide security and stability to ELPIS school.

Last year Peh Htoo, the headmistress of ELPIS school, faced a troubling problem. The owner of

the boarding house that she rented told her that he would not renew her lease after March

2014. This meant that the 59 students who slept in the dormitory, all of whom have lost or

been separated from their families, would have no place to stay for the next school year.

Fortunately, Peh Htoo and her husband owned some land where they could build a new

dormitory. Unfortunately, they did not have the funds to initiate such an expensive project.

But, in September 2013, Wide Horizons students worked together with ELPIS school and a

vocational school for migrant youth called Science and Technology Training Center (STTC), to

write a proposal for two new dormitories. Supported by generous funding from Room to GrowFoundation, Wide Horizon students and staff managed the construction of two boarding house

dormitories (one for the girls and one for the boys) for ELPIS school. The dormitories will

provide a safe, secure, and comfortable place to live for the children.

Now that ELPIS school has two

dormitories on land owned by the

staff, the school no longer has to pay

rent for a boarding house. The money

that was used to pay rent can now be

redirected to the school, so all 373

students and 18 staff members willbenefit directly from this project. In

addition to the incredible learning

experience the project afforded Wide

Horizons students, this project gave

15 STTC students the opportunity

learn and practice vocational skills.

Documents

3.3.Dl.9 WH Community Projects - Success Stories