Audley Manager, Kate, with the children of Paya Ngoto

I’ve blogged several times about this small, provincial school in Burma (to see previous blogs just type “Paya Ngoto” into the search).

The first time was when the school was virtually destroyed by Cyclone Nargis back in 2008. Since then Audley have set up numerous fund raising events, not just to repair the school, but to continue to support it long term.

I thought I’d share with you what Kate, one of our Southeast Asia Regional Product Managers, found on a recent visit (includes photos). 

During my trip to Burma last month I paid my first visit to the Paya Ngoto School, which Audley has supported since 2008.

After Cyclone Nargis ripped through the community destroying homes, lives and land in its wake we organised a fundraising initiative to get the school rebuilt. With the help of a huge number of client donations and support from staff, family and friends we raised £11,000.

Today the school is thriving and is an important hub of this rural community near Twante, a two-hour journey from Rangoon. It was wonderful, and rather moving to be able to finally visit the school and meet the dedicated teachers and delightful children who were all eager to show off their alphabet recitals and playground games. We presented the teachers with new longyis and the children were given new exercise books and pencils.

We provide ongoing support to the school and encourage any of our clients travelling to Burma to pay a visit and donate exercise books, pencils, learning materials, new uniforms etc. We can also arrange a sponsored lunch for the whole school prepared by the local monastery, which provides the children with a hot, wholesome meal. Clients are of course invited to join the children and teachers for lunch.

(Click to enlarge)

For more information about Paya Ngoto School and travel to Burma, please contact our Burma specialists on 01993 838105 or contact us online.

The new school uniforms for the children.

I’ve been periodically updating Audley’s fundraising efforts for Paya Ngoto School in Burma, which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis back in 2008.

I’ve just learned that a group of Audley clients on one of our Group Tours to Burma has arrived today at the school, where they handed out brand new uniforms to the children and staff. In addition they also sponsored a lunch for them all.

Here are some images I’ve just got back.

Click to see full size…

Here are all the related posts about our fundraising efforts for the school:

• Update: Paya Ngoto School in Burma (Jun 2009)
• Paya Ngoto School in Burma reopens (Mar 2009)
• Fundraising tops £10,000 – our Burma school opens! (Nov 2008)
• Enter the Burma fund-raising prize draw (Sep 2008)
• Audley supports Burma school project (Sep 2008)

Children playing in their rebuilt playground

Back in May 2008, Audley staff decided to raise money to rebuild Paya Ngoto School in Burma, after it was badly damaged by Cyclone Nargis. Now one of our Burma specialists updates us on the final stages of the project.

“The 1st June 2009 marks a new term and the final stages of completion at the village school in Paya Ngoto.

I’m sure you’ll agree the pictures taken today (below) on the first day of term are a credit to each and every person who donated to the Burma appeal and that giving a little really can go a long way, and with the community of Paya Ngoto in particular the donations really can make a difference!

Thanks to the generous donations from Audley clients, friends, family and staff we have been able to rebuild a cyclone damaged school in the Irrawaddy Delta opening to the village community in October 2008 which has helped bring back a sense of normality to the area.

The extra money raised when smashing the £8,000 target has provided further physical improvements to the school, all of which have been completed over the past few days; most importantly a much needed flood defence wall and a raised-level concrete playground – both employed to stave off the annual monsoon flood waters and increase the children’s safety. Educational items such as a cassette player and tapes, clocks and also 10 school uniforms have been provided from the proceeds.”

Mark Robinson
Audley Burma specialist

The flooded entrance after the cyclone

The school entrance after the rebuilding work

Water pump area after cyclone

Water pump area after the rebuilding work

Inside the refurbished classroom

Children of Paya Ngoto School in Burma

Back in May 2008 Audley held a staff fundraising event to raise money to rebuild a primary school in Paya Ngoto, Burma, after its destruction by Cyclone Nargis. By the end of the year we had raised a total of £11,000.

Now, nearly a year later I’ve just received (via one of our Burma specialists) an Audley client’s first-hand account of the finished project after a recent visit.

“We have just returned from our holiday in Myanmar and, on Feb 16th, our visit to Paya Ngoto Primary School. We had a wonderful holiday, as always, in this fantastic destination, but this year the world wide recession seems to have significantly reduced the number of tourists visiting the country (we noticed the same in Thailand). We had a memorable morning at the school accompanied by Cho Cho Yin and her husband. I hope you find the following report useful. There is much that can still be done for the lovely children and the teachers in this rural community.

The School and Community
Reached along a bumpy dirt road about 30 mins drive from Twante and 1 hour from Yangon. The small village is a little tree-filled oasis with lotus ponds in the flat rice lands of the delta, next to a 2 monk monastery and small pagoda. The rebuilding was completed and the school re-opened in Oct 2008. According to the head teacher, the only remaining building works to be finished are completion of the fence at the back of the school and raising the level of the earth at the front of the school (up to concrete entrance path level) as the ground gets very soggy in the rainy season. We were the first westerners to visit the school.

It is a very poor community.

The Children
There are 55, 27 boys and 28 girls, ages 5-10 and grades 1-5. The 5th grade has only 3 children, all girls. Nearly all were in their school uniform (not all families can afford a uniform) especially for our visit. Needless to say, they looked utterly charming, most sporting thanake (a paste used for skin protection) on their faces, although a little bewildered at times in front of westerners (probably due to my white hair and beard!). Sue, being a retired primary school teacher and brilliant with kids, soon broke the ice and we spent time with all the grades looking at their work etc.

The Three Lady Teachers
Also were wearing their uniform and looked very smart. They showed us pictures of the previously devastated school building. Their names are Daw Htar Htar Lwin (head), Daw Than Chit and Daw San San Moe. They were all most helpful and grateful for what had been achieved and already supplied.

We Supplied
Lots of exercise books (wide and narrow-lined for writing practice), pencils, rubbers, crayons, pencil sharpeners, colouring books, notebooks and biros for the teachers, to the value of around 100 dollars.

Further Needs
As defined by the head and not in any order of importance:
1. Wooden cupboards for storage
2. Slippers for kids and any convenient clothing, not just school uniforms. It really is a very poor area.
3. A wall clock
4. A rotating globe of the world – their present globe was badly damaged in the cyclone.
5. Text books – they were OK for the rest of this term (now finishing) but needed new text books at the beginning of the next term (early June).
6. A white board with marker pens. They have blackboards.
7. A Radio Cassette player for teaching English. A tape player, not CD. Their present cassette player is broken. They would also need batteries and spares as there is no village electricity. They prefer to operate using 6v or 12v car batteries. Not sure how they do this?
8. Rulers – not too many as they share

The Monastery
As one would expect, it plays a key part within the community and was the only largely undamaged building after the winds of the cyclone. It operated as the school building for some months. After an hour and a half at the school, we spent an entertaining half an hour with the monks over coffee and fresh yummy papaya. Our colleagues had brought for the monks a large sack of rice and other food goodies. They had done a ‘reccy’ on the village and school before taking us along and were fully into the spirit of things. They enjoyed the visit as much as we did.

It is worth mentioning also, that on the route from Yangon to Twante, there is now a hypermarket (yes, a hypermarket!) called Diamond City. It has a quite excellent, very clean and cheap Chinese restaurant. Perfect for lunch after a school visit!

On reflexion, we enjoyed a simply wonderful morning. It is both touching and immensely rewarding to see first hand that one’s own charitable contribution can make such a huge difference to a small community and mean such a lot to the children and teachers. We are absolutely certain that Audley’s clients will experience similar emotions to ourselves on their visits to Paya Ngoto. You are all to be congratulated on this initiative.

Above is a selection of photos we took.

We hope our enthusiasm has crept through in this note!”

Nigel and Sue Wright

“Gingerly I lie down on the deck but not before a sailor rushes to mop up any lingering condensation under my prone figure, he who had knelt at my feet (upon arrival) to remove muddy  shoes, an affront to all teak decks! Camera poised in the lifebelt’s centre, I  await the dawn of yet another glorious Myanmar day . Only the melodious slap of the river’s current against immaculate paintwork of Pandaw4 lulls passengers’ sleep in this epitome of luxury, as it painstakingly threads its way but thrice a year up the highest reaches of this incredible maritime highway.

As  my eyes adjust to the night that is not night, yet not day, I hear the melodious clink of harness upon bullock, a perfect symphony of man and animal, as the farmer effortlessly swings the plough around his field of rich, river-brown alluvial soil, whilst a gold paintbrush underscores the tips of the surrounding hills. Spellbound I glimpse the villagers – already girded for the day, rice cooked, wandering saffron monks primed for breakfast – slowly come alive to people this vibrant scene. The pink subtly changes to a soft melange of gold and blue in the sky, chocolate and green below, whilst the ship’s signature shadow grows  white and teak-coloured on still waters. A creaking bullock cart emerges on the river bank, sacks groaning; women zealously slap clothes with long bars of yellow soap at the water’s edge, before washing themselves by dexterously whipping one longyi over another, revealing nought but a well-turned ankle. They lather their black hair energetically, as the walnut-faced old man jets a fountain of toothpaste into the swirling water, whilst pretty schoolgirls – English in their uniform if not their thanakha-chirrup off to school. Young men bravely mount sit-up-and-beg cycles, pedalling to another day’s hard labour. Meanwhile a stronger sun urgently blinks semaphore messages to golden-roofed stupas whilst villagers load flimsy canoes with fish, shooting out towards  ancient river craft, [Plimsoll-lineless], weighed down by valuable teak baulks or stuffed with bemused, behaltered bullocks.

Mesmerised by this kaleidoscope of Burmese life, little changed from Orwell, I gently call ‘mingalabar’, fearful of breaking the spell of having arrived in fabled Erewhon.

This is their world and I feel enthralled but also uneasy, lest I trespass on this seeming eternity of happy tranquillity. For if Burma’s beauty is surrealistic, so are its people, with their glowing vitality. Coming from a far-off country where boorish behaviour, violence and marginalization of others’ needs are the norm, I have sailed into a world where smiles, greetings and camaraderie are the order of the day. I feel a sudden jab of jealous envy for a society where there is such evident harmony, exacerbated by a dread that my very coming might disturb this equilibrium, their happiness vitiated by my presence.

I came as an unseeing tourist but depart as a convert to a country so unchanged and so unchanging, glimpsing something of a world we have lost, yet remains evergreen in The Golden Lands.”

To find out more about Audley’s holidays to Myanmar (Burma), and our views on whether or not to travel there, see our website section on Tours to Burma or call our Myanmar (Burma) specialists on 01993 838 105.

A very big thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets and purchased photographs from our online exhibition. We managed to raise over £10,000 towards the school building in Burma, well over our £8,000 target, which means that as well as building the school itself we were able to buy school furniture and some stationery.

Building work started as soon as the first money was donated, so the school was completed ready for the new term. There was a grand opening ceremony on 23rd October, and children, parents and teachers enjoyed a simple lunch of “monhinga” (a local favourite food made with thin, soft rice noodles in a fish based broth) after the ceremony with invited guests from the Township Education Office.

The opening ceremony

There is still a lot of floodwater in the vicinity of the school, and one thing we have looked into is better irrigation for the land in the area. But, this is proving very difficult as the whole area is wetland. There is also a tidal creek at the back of the school which floods during the rainy season. The village and the school cover a very large area and it will cost a lot for irrigation and drainage, so as an intermediate solution we have a plan to build better flood defences.

We also still need to repair the lane (from the school to the main road), but the Paya Ngotto (North) Primary School is now fully open, and we are looking forward to going out to visit next time we have a member of staff in Yangon.

Classes under way again

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients, family and friends for supporting our Burma appeal and for helping to make it such a success.

If you would like to help with our fundraising efforts please purchase a ticket for entry into our prize draw. There are some fabulous prizes to win all kindly donated by some of our suppliers and the families and friends of Audley staff. The prize draw takes place on the 15th October 2008.

Prize draw tickets can be purchased by downloading the Order Form or calling 01993 838 105.

The full list of prizes available are as follows:

• The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company has kindly donated a 10-night Irrawaddy cruise for two aboard the Pandaw IV worth approximately £4,000. An additional two nights at The Strand Hotel is also included in this prize. (Please be aware that flights, transfers and visas are not included.)
• One week in a gite in France’s Burgundy region (sleeps two, flights not included)
• One week in a cottage in Northumberland (sleeps four)
• A weekend in a cottage in Monmouthshire, Wales (sleeps four)
• A day trip for two on the British Pullman or Northern Belle train, including brunch, an excursion at the chosen destination and a table d’hote dinner with champagne and wine (kindly donated by Orient Express)
• Commissioned watercolour painting of your home or a landscape by Mr W Harvey
• Two mounted Burma prints by Mrs M Fewkes
• A half case of fine wine from Majestic Wine
• A year’s subscription to Wanderlust magazine
• Insight travel guides
• Insight World Travel Encyclopedias
• Unframed print of your choice from the online exhibition

As part of our fund-raising efforts to support the children of the primary school at Paya Ngoto (North) Village which was completely destroyed by cyclone Nargis, we have launched the Burma Gallery – an online photography exhibition where you can purchase professional quality prints with the money raised going towards the £8,000 target needed to help rebuild the school.The forty images in this unique collection have all been taken by Audley staff on their travels around the world and all are of professional quality. You can view the collection at www.audleytravel.com/burmagallery, order your favourites and make payment online.

Thank you to all our clients that have already contributed to our fund, your support is much appreciated and we will of course keep you updated on our progress.

Following our initial fundraising efforts for the victims of cyclone Nargis, it has always been our intention to source a project that Audley could directly support that would provide long-term gain for a community.

Whilst it has proved considerably more difficult than we had initially thought to find a suitable project (our first attempt unfortunately fell through to another donor), we are now moving ahead at a pace with the rebuilding of a primary school at Paya Ngoto (North) Village.
It is situated a short distance from the town of Twante, which is reached either by road or a two-hour ferry journey from Rangoon. Paya Ngoto is a small village and the community is extremely poor. The school was virtually destroyed by the cyclone and the 55 pupils aged between five and eight are currently being taught in a temporary bamboo building. We hope to increase student capacity to nearly 70 children. Rebuilding the school will take between three and four months.

Rebuilding the school

We have sourced this project with the help of our local agent in Burma who will now oversee the rebuilding of the school in conjunction with a school committee. By using their resources we can be sure that the funds we raise will go to those who need it most: local contractors, a local workforce and above all the children and families of a local community.

The children of Paya-Ngoto

We need to raise £8,000 to rebuild the main schoolhouse and adjacent toilet block. A local contractor has already started work rebuilding the main schoolhouse and the children are so excited to see their new school taking shape.

If we are able to exceed our initial target of £8,000 we can build a more robust pathway which leads from the main road to the school. We would also like to provide new furniture for the school, playground facilities and a supply of stationery for all of the students.

New plans for the school

Ultimately we want to forge a long term relationship with this small village in Burma. The proximity of the school to Rangoon will enable our Burma specialists and clients to visit it on future trips and take stationery supplies with them. Our group tour to Burma in November 2009 will include a visit in the itinerary.

Yesterday our series of fundraising events got underway with a lunchtime of fun activities including a Hog Roast and BBQ as well as a cake sale. I never realised you could get into a bidding war over a cake! Just as well both parties did, as it helped to make lots of money.

I was also really pleased to see so many of the staff donning costumes from their specialist or favourite countries and we had some amazing outfits on show. We still have a little bit more money to come in as we sell the remaining few cakes but in total we raised over £1,900. What a fantastic effort!

Thanks to everyone who took part and to the directors for putting themselves in the stocks, whilst we all took turns to throw wet sponges at them. The money is already en-route to Burma and to our local agent to buy additional supplies for the project in and around Syriam.

The villages still need roofing and building materials, food and medical supplies as well as clothing and blankets. This money equates to well over 5 million Kyat (the local Burmese currency) which will go a very long way. Thanks again to everyone for taking part in yesterday’s fundraiser, it is encouraging to know that we can help make a difference to so many people.

Audley fancy dress fundraising day for Burma Cyclone Appeal

At Audley we have all been moved by what is happening in Burma. Those of us that have visited the country and have experienced the warmth and generosity of the Burmese people at first hand are desperate to give something back. Next week the Southeast Asia department will be kicking off our series of fundraising events with a BBQ lunch and fancy dress day. We are charging everyone for the privilege of coming to work in the regional dress of their specialist country, as well as for a tasty lunch. Just as well I have a number of traditional Burmese longyi at home. Proceeds from this event will go to our local agent in Burma who is working round the clock to get more and more supplies to Syriam and its surrounding villages (see the other Blog updates for more details on this project).

In the coming weeks we also have a charity football match lined up as well as a client fundraiser. As Chairman of the fundraising committee I will keep you updated as our plans develop and dates are finalised. Proceeds from these events will be used for longer term recovery projects, which we are currently sourcing with the help of our local agent. Personally, I would like to see us getting involved in rebuilding schools or hospitals, or as one client has suggested, establishing medical clinics in the Delta.

In the aftermath of the tsunami Audley raised a massive amount of money for the DEC, we are now a bigger company and I’m confident that we can at least double this figure. Thank you to those clients who have already made donations to our fund. If anyone else would like to donate please call our Burma specialists on 01993 838 105.

Monasteries are for many villages in Burma the focal point of a community and from here aid has been distributed to many families and individuals in need. The children of the orphanage have been provided with wholesome meals whilst the villagers have been educated on how to use the water filters donated by an American company.

Click on the images to enlarge

Our local agent in Burma (who sent us the photos below) has been working in the Syriam area near Yangon getting food, medical supplies, water filters and building materials through to an orphanage and monastery there. From here, aid has also been distributed to the wider community.Whilst we understand the need to get immediate aid to people affected, we want to get involved in longer term projects to help communities recover. It is a little early to identify the future needs of villages in the Irrawaddy Delta, however, we are going to start fundraising activities immediately to build up a reserve of cash which can be used once specific projects have been selected. If you would like to make a donation please call our Burma specialists on 01993 838 105.

Many clients have contacted us to ask what they can do to help the Burmese people. In the immediate aftermath we would recommend a donation to one of the following charities:

• Red Cross
• Oxfam
• Unicef
• Disasters Emergency Committee

For more information about the challenge facing aid agencies read this article on the BBC website.

We will also be looking at ways that we can help with more long term recovery projects in the country. Given the current regime we want to be sure that any support is directed to the people who need it most. We will keep you informed of developments.