Help Build Village Teacher Houses

With the civil unrest in Myanmar, projects are taking longer than originally anticipated. Project officers have to be very careful about traveling to remote areas, and their safety is our number 1 concern. Materials are also harder to obtain with inflated prices. But, all three teacher housing projects are underway. We look forward to seeing the finished products and getting full-time teachers into these rural villages to keep the children in class. 

Each of our three pilot villages in Zambia placed teacher housing at the top of their priority list. In the Mazabuka region of Zambia, the roads become impassible during the rainy season, just like in our Myanmar regions. There is no way for the teachers to get into the schools, leaving children out of the classroom for weeks at a time. 

With the addition of these teacher housing units, qualified teachers are happy to stay on-site in comfortable accommodations where they can focus on their students while also taking care of themselves. 

Lin Phon village is in its 5th year of partnership with Shanta Foundation. A new school building was identified as a priority infrastructure project. The VDT and the infrastructure committee developed a proposal and submitted it to Shanta, requesting $12,000 and promising a community contribution of $3,830, or over 25% of the overall expenditure. Each of the 56 houses in the village will contribute 80,000 kyats ($38), with an additional 3,618,000 kyats ($1,700) coming from the village-owned community fund. 

The building required an additional $7,200 in order to be completed. Shanta determined that Lin Phon is not an abundant community, but the village was inspired to contribute more from their side. Consequently, Shanta contributed an additional $3,600, and the community contributed an additional $3,600. The overall cost was $23,100, with Shanta contributing $15,600 and the community contributing $7,500.

As a result, the primary school building project of a 90’x30’x12′ concrete building with four classrooms and one office space was completed in June 2023!