Moegyo (1) Basic Primary School, Pan Tha Pyay Village, Shan State

Here is a story of how one man changed the lives of one hundred and fifty children and those around them. The impact that he has made will be felt for generations to come and he is our hero. That man is Jimmy (aka) Moses. This is his story.

May 2010: I visited this Palaung village “Pan –Tha-Pyay” located on the mountain range  about 10 miles from the village of Mongyaw where we helped built a Primary school in 2007-2009. I discovered that in this village of over 500 people, including nearly 200 children, not only nobody can read or write but also their standard of living is very primitive.

I persuaded the village elders to build a temporary school using bamboo and thatch to begin classes by June. It was easy for them to see a need to build a school after I showed them a video of a school that we built at a nearby village of Mongyaw, by using a portable dvd player I carried with me.

We hired a Kachin native who speak Shan, Burmese and a bit of Palaung as a teacher at a salary of $60 per month for 10 months, (June 2010 to March 2011). We also had to buy a motorcycle at a cost of $500 for him to commute between this village (Pan-Tha-Pyay) and his home which is in Monyaw 10 miles away. We also left $300 to purchase school supplies such as blackboard, exercise books, pencils, etc.

Look at the condition of the road leading to Pan Tha Pyay village:



October 2010: A friend who is a member of Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation introduced me to the organization. I explained the school project to the members and they realized and understood the need, and without any hesitation agreed to help the funding of the project with $5,000 (five thousand dollars). This foundation was initially formed to help the Nargis Cyclone victims in Myanmar. This non-profit humanitarian organization has continued to help other causes.

Also, friends who knew about this school project donated collectively a total of $4000 (Four thousand dollars).

November 2010: I returned to this Palaung village to begin construction of a permanent school building.

December 24:  The village headman secured an empty lot for us to construct the school building. The school building measures 60 feet by 40 feet, the building will have a three separate classrooms. All the necessary building materials will have to be bought and trucked to this village.

January 27: An opening ceremony was held.

Watch the school opening ceremony here:



Subsequently on the 9th of May 2011, with further additional funding from MHF, a teacher’s living quarter complete with toilet facility, bathroom and concrete water storage tank were built and the construction was completed on the 23 of June 2011.

There are more than one hundred and fifty students and more are expected to come from nearby villages to enroll. There are five teachers: one male and four female, all of whom are ethnic Kachin. They seemed to know the psychology of these Palaung children. Their teaching found to be helping the transformation of these once ragtag purposeless children into decent happy looking filled with hope looking for a better future.

This project could not have been possible without the generous support from Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation, and please allow me to fervently say this, I am humble and at the same time I am proud to have the opportunity of calling myself one of the volunteers of this great organization and once again let me express my profound appreciation for making this project possible.

For more photos, please visit Moegyo's photo gallery.