Saw Shin May, Narinjara News, 9 September 2024

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

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

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

“The main problem is funding. We are trying to createa PDF file and print it on paper, but the printer is running out of ink andfinding 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 otherbooks, pencils, and pens.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photograph - Lunn Roung Khray foundation