A Web of Friendship Crosses Barriers

We are very happy to report that a fund which had been provided by foreign meditators, earmarked to go towards rural monasteries in need, has been delivered. Thank you for your generous contribution! Following is the report from our team leader:

We arranged a trip and transportation to a newly established monastic school that is located far into the rural countryside. The young head monk of this monastery, has started his altruistic service at this remote area at the bottom of the rocky mountains. The monastery is located near a village of woodcutters’ cottages. The people there do not send their children to any public school or monastic school which is located in the nearest town. (It’s only 5 or 6 miles away from the town but there is no access road to the nearest town.) The children do not go to school and the young children just play while the older just go with their father to help in woodcutting in the forests on the mountains. Hence, when the head monk arrived in this isolated countryside, he asked the parents to send children but no one wanted to: the children were afraid of school, too. However, he was wise to convince them to let their children be ordained as novices. The children were happy to be novices as they often came, helped and served him, such as filling water (carried from their huts) in the pots in his monastery, while they also played football there: the monk bought soccer balls from the city for them. He found that the very poor but generous woodcutters admire him as a religious leader, and then he started to ordain their children as novices there.

He did not only teach them Buddhist prayers but also taught them how to read and write, starting from ABCs of Burmese language. While he had been teaching 30-40 novices at first during the pandemic, his childhood teacher Sayadaw of a monastery in the downtown sent over 150 novices and requested him to offer accommodation for them as his monastery has a wider space of land to house them. His master Sayadaw often supported some sacks of rice for these children. He started to build bamboo huts through the help of the villagers and house the children there. The newly arrived children were some ethnic minority children and mostly from the combatting areas of Sagaing Region. He and his friend monks (who have come to help him) were happy and have firmly believed that it is the time to serve the Sāsana since then.

However, he sometimes felt stressed and depressed to be able to perform his noble services alone in this poor remote area to offer a more comfortable abode for the young novices. When we mentioned that this donation of rice and stationeries came from the international donors, he and his friend monks expressed their feeling that it is very inspiring to know this information and they wanted me to inform all the donors that it is truly a great help for these 200 permanent boarding novices. Although the novices can collect their food by going alms-round in the small village of cottages there, he just sends a few of them to go as the villagers are also poor farmers, woodcutters and bamboo cutters. The local people often send food and curries not only for their children but also for other novices, though. Through some support from his former teacher Sayadaw and some local donors, he has also been working hard to lay a concrete road from his village to the nearest town which is only 5 miles in length.

He mentioned to us that they are very grateful to us as we came on the poor-conditioned country road due to the rain. (His road project is not complete yet and is under construction.) He asked his students from the village to come around and he gave them some stationeries. The children were happy to have new books and stationeries.

Finally, we want to express a deep and heartfelt thank you to our amazing international supporters who've been a crucial part of this journey. Your help has brought so much light to the lives of these young novices in our rural community. It's incredible how your generosity has reached us from far and wide. These kids now have access to education and a better future, all thanks to your kindness. The head monk and his fellow monks are working tirelessly, and with your donations, they've transformed simple bamboo huts into centers of learning. The sound of children laughing and studying stands as a tribute to your goodness. From our small village nestled among rocky mountains, we want to extend our warmest gratitude for being the driving force behind this incredible endeavor. Your support is like a ray of sunshine for us.