It could all have been so different. Ma Kay Thi’s father is an alcoholic and a gambler. But her mother, who brought seven children into the world, wanted to make sure her children in her poor family had a future. Pressed for money, she did what a good mother would do––she made sure her kids got an education.

Children who miss out on school face a bleak future in Burma. Girls, in particular, may find at the best only poorly paid work or worse slip into prostitution.

Ma Kay Thi’s mother took her two eldest daughters to Aye Yeik Mon School in Mandalay. This is a welfare school co-sponsored by the AYM Girl’s Orphanage Association and The Mandalay Projects to help girls who are orphans or come from poor families. Ma Kay Thi’s mother knew what the school was like, having studied there herself.

The school provides boarding school accommodation as well as vocational skills such as tailoring and dressmaking. Typically, the girls go to a local government school during the day and return to Aye Yeik Mon School to sleep and get extra tuition and the support of staff and fellow students.

Orphanage centers and schools for deprived kids are mushrooming in the towns and cities of Burma. A few outstanding youth like Ma Kay Thi grab the opportunity offered and excel, though many merely get by with passable grades or struggle.

Aye Yeik Mon School offers a refuge. Aye Yeik Mon means a ‘peaceful and pleasant venue’, a place where the Buddhist nuns running the school, Taung-Goo and Chaung-U, provide not just good food and shelter, but an education and good moral grounding.

As the nuns know, many of the children who turn up on their doorstep have had troubles with their family and faced trauma at home. So the nuns provide counseling and a loving, cozy environment.

Aye Yeik Mon School has a claim to fame. A Burmese movie titled, Kyi Pyar, was based on the story of the school. Written by Shwe Thinzar and directed by Kyi Myint, it was awarded three academy prizes––the Burmese equivalent of the Oscar Award––for outstanding film, the best director and the best actress (film star May Win Maung) in 1980.

Not that notoriety from decades ago helps the kids today. As Ma Kay Thi found, some children at the local government school she attended before going on to university did not want to befriend her and her friends because they were looked down on as kids from a girls’ shelter. The teachers also did not pay them much attention because they did not provide fees or money for extra tuition. The nuns provided payment of any mandatory government school fees. 

But the atmosphere at Aye Yeik Mon School was all so different. As Ma Kay Thi said, there is a feeling of camaraderie at the school with the elder kids helping the younger kids with their homework and lessons. Volunteers offer extra classes, including practical vocational skills.

Education is becoming more competitive in Burma. Children who can afford it study in extra tutorial classes after school and parents often push their kids to excel.

Still, Aye Yeik Mon School can boast of success. Many students from Aye Yeik Mon have passed their high school exams and some are even going to university like Ma Kay Thi or doing vocational training courses.

The school has a good reputation locally and Mandalay residents often come to donate food and clothing. When that happens, the nuns call on the children to publicly express their gratitude. After all, without the support of outside donors, the school would have difficulty in surviving, and children like Ma Kay Thi might not have a future.

For more information on the Mandalay Projects go to: www.themandalayprojects.net