This is Pyin-Nyar-Yeik-Mon School, Myanmar (formerly Burma).
The Golden Land Education Foundation was formed by Di Morrissey in Australia in 2012 to support the work of visionary and hardworking Burmese Monk, Ven. Vijja Nanda who wanted to start a school in a poor village at the foot of the Shwe Min Wun mountain range outside Sagaing, near Mandalay.
The village has about 1,500 people who struggle to exist with very few facilities, erratic and expensive electricity, limited water, basic food and few opportunities to advance and improve their lives. There are about five similar villages in the same area. The government school is some distance away and most children cannot get there without a five mile walk over the mountain there and back.
Ven. Vijja Nanda wanted to start a school for grades 1 to 6 students and teach them creatively, not by rote, to stimulate their minds and skills and encourage their self- development, critical thinking and awareness of a bigger world past their village. They began with a donated plot of land from Daw Yee, whose family owns a small rice mill in the village. When Di met Ven. Vijja Nanda, having just travelled through Myanmar to write a book (the novel, “The Golden Land”), she agreed to help.
By 2013, after one year, the little school became a reality and flourishing, but many basic needs still have to be met.
The joy, the enthusiasm and the gratitude of the children and their families is heartwarming. Ven Wiza has done so much with so little. He is truly making a huge difference, not only to this rural community, but the school is a beacon of what can be achieved to follow Aung San Suu Kyi’s wish that educating the children is a major step forward for the future of Myanmar as they move towards democracy.
Visit our website at The Golden Land Education Foundation.
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Thank You. With Metta,
Westpac Bank
BSB: 032539
A/c No: 430836
A/c name: Golden Land Education Foundation