Did you know that according to some recent reports released by the United Nations, approximately 72 million children of primary school age are not in school? Girls and children from poorer or rural families are least likely to attend school. For example, 57% of the 72 million are girls (41 million).
It was only a year ago when One Day’s Wages granted the
Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee (BMWEC) with the amount of $5,128
(USD) to help with access to education by providing transportation for Burmese students. In fact, it was the first grant awarded by ODW. The funding allowed BMWEC
to organize and manage transportation for 18 months, making education
accessible for over 200 students at Hsa Mu Htaw School.
Education is Critical
By looking at the picture of the students above, the
investment in school transportation was without a doubt a great success. Hsa Mu
Htaw School started in 2003 with only 20 students and one teacher in the Answar
quarter of Mae Sot. Over the past seven years the school has expanded to teach
252 students and employ 14 teachers. Overall, BMWEC has over 6200+ students in their numerous learning centers!
With the increase in students, the need for
transportation was dire. Dependable transportation provides students living on
the outskirts of Mae Sot a safe method of going to and from school. Without
transportation, students are forced to walk or bike between 1-6 miles each
direction, where they are often stopped by the Thai police who are notorious
for harassing Burmese immigrants.
A Letter of Gratitude
A sixth grade Hsa Mu Htaw student recently wrote the letter below to ODW (and to all of you) to express his gratitude:
My parents already heard about the
difficulty of transportation in previous year. Therefore, my parents had
planned to buy the second hand bicycle in order to go the school by riding
bicycle.When my parents registered my name to the school on 28th
May 2010, the teachers explained to every parent that One Days Wages
Organization would support for the school transportation for a year (2010 –
2011). All students’ parents were pleased as soon as they heard the provision
for the transportation. It made the woe of parents disappeared.
As a result of your support for ODW, you made this grant possible and thus, education accessible for these students. Thank you to BMWEC for helping
Burmese migrant children and bringing education to an ignored minority group. Take
a few moments to learn more about BMWEC and the ways you can get involved here.
More Updates from
Hsa Mu Htaw School:
- School buses are used eight times a day – it
makes four trips in the mornings to fetch up to 50 students and teachers at a
time then makes four trips every afternoon. - 200 students use the transportation offered by
BMWEC. - Over 80 percent of students can regularly attend
classes. - Since June 2010 there were 238 students. In Sept. 2010, there are now 259 students.
Thank you for all your support.
ODW is unique in the sense that when you donate, you can give directly to one of our partner projects or you can give to our general ODW fund that allows us to award grants to small NGOs and CBOs such as BMWEC.
You choose.
And 100% of your investment (minus credit card fees) go to empower those living in extreme poverty.
