Mon charity group provides funds to repair and furnish Mon National Schools

August 27, 2018

“Ta Rao Aa Arr” Mon charity, which is led by Monk Aot Jae, provided funding to repair Mon National Schools in Mon populated areas of Mon State, and donated the required school furniture.

The main requirements are the repair and construction of school buildings, but the “Ta Rao Aa Arr”grouponly helped with funding and providing furniture once the locals fix the schoolbuildings.

“We did not directly help to construct the buildings. The locals told us about their plan to repair andrenovate the school buildings, and we found a donor and helped them to get money for the construction,” said Monk Aot Jae.

Monk Aot Jae added, “All the schools that we have built are of different designs. We spendon average about 30 million kyat [US $19,891] per school. If we use very good quality material,then 30 million kyat is not enough. In some schools we just let contractorsdo the building, but other times we hire normal builders [day laborers] torenovate the schools. Most of the funds come from Mon people who work abroad; we don’t have any NGO donors.”

The group also donated the required school furniture, such as desks, chairs, white boards, and stationery to the schools. Recently, they have been providingmoney to schoolswhich require long desks the students.

“Due to the strong collaboration between Mon artists, Mon people living abroad, and Mon people living inside Burma, we have many donors. In 2017–2018, we provided [money and furniture]for five Mon National Schools in Kyar Inn Seik Kyi Township, and two schools which are under construction in Ye Township,” the Monk continued.

According to a headmaster from Ka Ton Su village, “One of the schoolsthe charity helped is in Ka Ton Su village. This is one of the five schools thatthe charity built in Kyar Inn Seik Kyi Township. Previously,the building was in a bad condition; it was very dangerous for the students. The school was really old, and some students needed to go to hospital after they tripped on the old floor. We sentrequestsfor help to the Mon Education Department, but they said that they had no money to help with that.

“We asked for help from Monk Aot Jae as the students’ parents wanted to repair the school for the students. Monk Aot Jae encouragedus, and helped us to build the school, and now we have a new school. Even though Ta Rao Aa Arr’s group providedmuch help to repair the schools and required school furniture,the Mon Education Department doesn’t know how much they have helped us.”

Sayar Min Aung Zay from the Mon Education Department said, “We heard that a group sent a report to the [NMSP] Mawlamyine District [Office]. The district did not send it to our department, and there was some misunderstanding, but it is fine now. We told the group[Ta Rao Aa Arr] to collaborate with us. It is great if charitiesand citizenscan work togetherwith us.”

He explained that, “Recently, we haven’t had any difficultieswiththe Mon National Schools, as we have some support from the public and donors from NGOs.”

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dr.Min Kyi Win said, “The [Union] government provided 100 million Kyat [US $66,309] for Mon people [Mon State] this year,and theMNEC(Mon National Education Committee) requested 50 million Kyat [US $33,154]from the Mon State government to repairMon National Schools. However, the Mon State government cannot give the funding under the name of repairing the schools, as the amount is too low.”

According to list of Mawlamyine District’s Mon Education Department, there are three Mon National High Schools, 16 Mon National Middle Schools,and 113 Mon National Primary Schools, with a total of10,779 Mon students.

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