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WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?
All Prospect Burma's scholarship students commit to return to Burma when they can, and in the past few months we have heard from many of them, both through our pages on Facebook and by direct email. We are using pseudonyms for obvious reasons.
Suan Khai writes. 'Soon after completing my Masters in Public Health course, I went back to my native village and a small community-based organization(CBO) was established and I took the role of Program Coordinator. Currently our CBO is implementing three main programs: Non-formal Education Program for marginalized children (40 children aged 6-10 years), Behavioural Change and Development Program for school children (100 school  children of Grade IV from government primary school of the village) and Youth Development Program where community youths are empowering by provision of community development training, leadership training, professional development training and youth reading cycle. A mini-library was also set up in the village and we are now planning to develop community resource center at the village.
Duh Lum returned to Burma in August 2011. With support from Prospect Burma for two years he was able to receive his masters in Social Sciences from a University in Europe . When he finished his studies he contacted an international NGO and was assigned to work with them. He says 'Right now I am in-charged of a water project for a village'. When this project is complete his next plan is to register a local NGO. There are two main fields which he wants to develop: Sustainable Development and Social Business. He says 'As you might be aware of the progress of Burma political change, I believe, I would be able to take part as one of the corner stone for development in Burma'. Thanks to "Prospect Burma'
 Myint Thein reports from Burma having graduated from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand where his thesis title was “Detection of opium poppy fields using moderate resolution satellite imagery”. Now back home, he is working in geographic information system management and says “I will continue working in a humanitarian related organisation to serve the best to the people in Myanmar and around the region.”
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In our Winter 2008 newsletter, we ran a story on Sasa, who was then a sixth year medical student studying in Armenia. This update comes from our newsletter issued in the Summer of 2010.
He was supported by Prospect Burma throughout his seven years of studies, and graduated as a doctor last Summer.
In our original story, we told how Sasa had gone to Mizoram with a mobile clinic to offer aid to Chin villages whose population at the time was suffering from famine due to the flowering bamboo and plague of rats. He returned a second time with another mobile clinic, and was given a large parcel of land by Mara churches close to the border between India and Burma in Mizoram State, India.
As soon as he graduated just twelve months ago, Sasa went back and with the help of local people the plot of land was cleared of trees, and Sasa’s vision to establish “A Place of Hope”, where Burmese Community Health Workers could be trained, rose from the ground. By the Autumn of 2009, the building programme had largely been completed with a lecture hall seating 350, kitchens, sleeping accommodation for over 300, and toilet facilities.
Sasa had asked the headman of 147 villages in the Chin hills to each nominate two people (one male/one female) to come to his centre and be trained as Community Health Workers. The first stage of the training commenced in November 2009 and several doctors from the UK came to assist Sasa in preparing the curriculum. In addition to training on site in basic healthcare, the Health Care Workers were also commissioned to conduct surveys in their own villages on their return, recording information such as total population, children under five, pregnancies—much of which has never been recorded before, and will provide valuable information for the future. The second phase of training took place in January for six weeks, and the final training block for the initial 317 health care workers will commence this Autumn for eight weeks.
“There is a beginning but there is no ending” says Sasa.
The Community Health Workers come from all walks of life, some are church ministers, some are mothers, many have walked on foot for several days through the Chin hills. There are regular exams and role playing, morning exercises, debates, volley ball games and prayer meetings. The syllabus is based mainly on a book called “Where There Is No Doctor” and all Community Health Workers have been issued with a copy of it in Burmese along with a thermometer, stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.
The Trustees of Prospect Burma decided that this exceptional educational project falls into the charity’s remit, and on behalf of all our donors, we are delighted to be able to continue to support Sasa in his work.
Sasa is, without doubt, an extraordinary young man, and we are privileged to come across many other young Burmese with a burning ambition to help their country and their people. An ambition that depends upon an education that they cannot access in their own country, and cannot afford overseas. This is where our Adopt a Scholarship scheme comes in to play. Prospect Burma supporters can pay £800 per annum towards a part scholarship for one of our students—in some cases that goes towards a substantial part of the scholarship grant, in other cases it is a minor portion. But what an incredible investment in human kind. Within a year of leaving university, Sasa will have passed health education on to over 300 Burmese people, who in turn, will take that education back to their 147 villages in the Chin hills and share it with 130,000 Burmese men, women and children, and in many cases their new found knowledge will literally be life saving. As Sasa says above “there is no ending” and as long as funds come in, he will continue to train more health workers. |
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When Khin Oo graduated Magna Cum Laude from a New England college in May 2003, with an Honours Degree in Economics and Distinction in Asian Studies, it was the realisation of a dream that she had long cherished along with her family. |
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Most of the students Prospect Burma helps are undergraduates studying for their first degree at colleges in India and Thailand; we also support postgraduate students in Asia and at western universities. Very occasionally we have decided to make a grant to an exceptional mature student whose specialisation and research make a significant contribution in their field. In this article, written in 2003, one such student is Khyne U Mar, affectionately known as 'the Elephant Lady'. Her internationally respected work has been described as "material to the very survival of the Asian elephant".
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At Prospect Burma we sometimes hear the argument that scholarships are not a high priority for people wanting to use their money to benefit poor communities. This is just one student's story written up in 2003 and an example of why we, with Aung San Suu Kyi, believe that investing in education is the best possible investment in the people of Burma and their future.
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I want everyone back home to know that their voices will be heard as long as Prospect Burma is there for students like us.
So many people are now visiting Burma and return home touched by the experience. We recently had a generous donation and message to say "Our family enjoyed a cycling tour of Burma last autumn, and as a result of what[…] 
