CWS Hotline

Source: Church World Service (CWS)

Date: 23 Feb 2009

Myanmar (Burma)

We like our new school," says a shy little boy, while taking an apple as a reward for speaking up. The rest of the students, who will soon be able to study in the new school, laugh."

The school, located in the community of Dedaye in the Irrawaddy Delta, is being built by CWS in collaboration with a local partner, and replaces a school that was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis last year.

The school--60 feet long and 30 feet wide--will accommodate 60 students in three classrooms. It is built to resist cyclones and stands on a raised concrete foundation with reinforced concrete columns. The windows and doors are reinforced with iron bars welded and bolted to the steel structure, while the zinc sheet roof is hooked with steel bars to the roof truss. The local community will use the school as shelter during storms.

By March 9, CWS and its partner will have finished building two schools in Dedaye township. CWS and its partner plan to build eight more schools and provide school supplies and uniforms in the near future.

Since the cyclone, CWS has worked in partnership to reach more than 323,000 people with water supplies. In addition, CWS helped provide emergency shelter to 41,000 families, and is assisting more than 20,073 vulnerable farm families with seed stock and fertilizer, power tillers and fuel.