A Monastic School in Lashio
The abbot of a monastic school in Northern Shan State, just outside of Lashio, talked to our local volunteer about the current situation and how he and his assistant monks are surviving for the ethnic children living in their monastery. For those inspired or moved, please consider a donation for this project to be able to continue. Donations can also be sent in country via Wave to 09942359202.
As it is a monastic school that we spoke to, they teach from Kindergarten through Grade-4 according to the national basic education curriculum. There are 50 novices to whom the monk is not only accommodating but also feeding three meals per day.
All of the students come from poor ethnic families from remote ethnic areas and some are the children are there because their parents became addicted to drugs. The Monk brought up these poor children whose parents cannot look after, instead.
The Monk does not only provide education to them but also teaches the lay-people’s vocational skills such as carpentry, for the purpose of their capacity if they disrobe from the monkhood when they grow up. By hearing this, it is obvious to guess how big the benevolence of the monk is on these poor ethnic children.
After the global pandemic and the military coup, there is no denying that the ethnic areas have also been affected the same as the plain mainland areas of Bamar majorities. As for the Abbot and his assistant monks, they have to go to the village farmers to collect vegetables to feed the young children and novices, only hoping it can be enough.
To imagine how hard it is to get alms-food and vegetables these days, the children are fed with fermented tea leaves instead of any curry dish almost everyday now. You can imagine how difficult this is for a child’s healthy development. Sometimes, the monks received local contributions that collected chick-peas, cooking oil and alms-rice from local CSOs and individual donors, but only when these shipments get through.
However, this can also no longer sustain and ease the hardship of the children in the monastery, especially for the alms-food. Obviously, since the schools across the nation are closed, there is no likelihood to see the attention of the SAC’s education ministry to support the monastic schools, too. They are totally on their own, except for the generosity of foreign donors.