Empower Myanmar's Youth: Fund Max Help's School for Peace

I am now retired, but have been following issues in Burma/Myanmar for many years. In 2021, I became involved with a very special group in Myanmar called Max Help who have a dream to build a creative education system designed to prepare young people to become leaders in a new democratic, peaceful, and unified country. Over the past few years, they have been developing a new curriculum for kindergarten through high school. Their approach is very innovative and forward-looking. Several things make this a very special movement.

1. They see education as a movement where teachers, students, parents, and community friends participate together to develop the curriculum as well as do planning and evaluations.

2. Starting at the kindergarten level, students learn about peace, justice, equality and federalism along with the normal subjects.

3. Peer education is an important part of the learning process as Max Help believes that all of us are both teachers and students.

4. Project-based learning gets students out of the classroom and into rural areas where they learn about public health, organic gardening, renewable energy, and machinery repair. During these visits, students work together to solve problems, build water and wind power sources, and discuss ways to improve work.

5. Online workshops with international educators give students opportunity to learn about peace and justice and also develop their English skills.

These and other innovative ideas create an alternative to the education managed by the military which is top-down with a curriculum that touts the military as the savior and protector of the country.

Due to security issues, classes have been taught online. However, parents and students have strongly encouraged Max Help to find a secure place to build a physical school for higher quality teaching.

Following the urging of the parents, Max Help was able to purchase a piece of land in a more secure area of the country. Parents and community people have volunteered to help clear the land and build an access road. Construction of the buildings is now urgently needed.

The plan is to construct a boarding school for 1st grade through high school. The first buildings will serve high school students so they can prepare for possible higher education after graduation. Later the other buildings will be constructed for students of other grades. Students and teachers will live at the school and the local community will help with food and other needs.

$70,000 is needed to complete construction of the first buildings, a water system, and solar panels for electricity.