Lunn Roung Khray foundation offers free education to displaced children in Ponnagyun, desperately needs textbooks

 Saw Shin May, Narinjara News, 9 September 2024

The Lunn Roung Khray foundation offers free education to over 100 internally displaced children from kindergarten to grade-v in Ponnagyun township of Arakan State. However, they are  facing difficulties with scarcity of  textbooks and other essential school materials.

An official from the foundation informed  Narinjara News that they have been providing self-reliant free education since 28 August.

Out of 108 attending students,  80 have incomplete textbooks and they are struggling due to the lack of resources.

“The main problem is funding. We are trying to create a PDF file and print it on paper, but the printer is running out of ink and finding a replacement becomes difficult,” he added.

Each set of textbooks costs nearly Kyats 40,000  and the foundation can not provide them the textbooks due to fund issues.

Besides textbooks, the displaced children also need essential items like other books, pencils, and pens.

“After the resurgence of fighting in Arakan State, the foundation launched the free education program to support the children and young people who had no access to formal education,” stated the official.

The primary goal is to ensure that the young Arakanese generation continues to receive education, even during the time of conflicts, he asserted.

“If a society needs progress, education becomes crucial. In Arakan State, where education facilities remain limited, the children are now completely denied access to education due to the conflicts. Some young people feel they have no future in education. We are concerned that it may lead to depression among the youths,” he added.

Since 24 July, the foundation has been providing computer training to children of grade viii and above in Ponnagyun locality.

There are over 100 students in the computer training program, but they have only 5 computers for use.

The foundation also offers other capacity-building programs and set up a mobile library.

Established on 18 October 2018, the foundation had around 80 members. Due to the fighting, some members left and currently it has around 20 members.

Photograph - Lunn Roung Khray foundation