Moegyo team visits nunneries in Thanlyin and Kyautan townships

At the end of December 2012, Moegyo team made assessment trips to the following nunneries in Thanlyin and Kyautan township in Yangon division to determine their needs and made donations where it's needed most.

1. Kaythara Waddy Nunnery
2. Thamaindawdara Tayzarthit Nunnery
3. Santhidar Nunnery
4. Zayar Theiddi Nunnery
5. Chanaye Tharyar Nunnery

Please see more photos from the trip.

Kaytharawaddy Nunnery Education

The nunnery is located in Thanlyin and run by the Nuns, Daw Kaytharri and Daw Kondamarlar. There are 180 children in the nunnery; 160 young nuns, 15 girls and 5 boys. Boys are accepted at the nunnery with the exception that only if they are the siblings of the girls who are already accepted. Most of the children in this nunnery are from Myanmar Borders, hill side and the orphans from nearby town and villages. Daily nutrition for these 180 children usually comes from donations and offerings of food and money from the people around Yangon and vicinity .

The aspirations of this nunnery are:
- to provide education to the ethnic girls from remote regions where education is far reach
- to teach Buddhism to the girls
- to offer free education to poverty stricken children
- to help cultivate children to have strong will to be educated
- to help fulfill those outstanding students’ goals in life to become well-educated and out of poverty

This nunnery operates a secondary school that offers free education up to 8th grade. The school also provides free text books to those students who can’t afford to buy their own. After 8th grade, the students are transferred to a local High School in Thanlyin. When they start attending high school, nun students typically leave nun-hood to attend the local schools. There are 392 students whom have been supported to continue high school education by this nunnery so far.

The living quarters of the nunnery is quite small to accommodate the increasing numbers of new students. The nuns currently have to share their living space tightly with the students. In some cases, three children have to share a twin bed. The nuns are in process of building a two story building with limited budget and seeking more donation. The new building can offer proper sleeping quarters for the students and the existing sleeping quarters can be used as larger sized classrooms for the students. However, the new school building project is going slow since there is no sizable donation for the building funds and cost for the constructions so far is rising. The nuns are struggling to support the students with all they have and all they can and donation is much needed to complete the construction for these students. Moegyo team donated 50,000 kyats towards the new building funds.

Thameindawdara Tayzarthit Nunnery

Situated in Thanlyin, it was founded in 2006 and run by a nun, Daw Kaythayi. Due to the size of the small classroom, it can accommodate about 35 children at the most. However, the student population is growing and no appropriate space to accommodate the growing population of the student bodies, this nunnery is looking forward to expand as well. Moegyo team donated 30,000 kyats.

Wirathi Tawra "Santhidar" Nunnery

Located in Kyautan, the nunnery is run by the head nun named Daw Khaymar Thi. There are 148 students in the school. The classrooms are needed to be fixed before the coming rainy season since all the thatched roofs and walls may not withstand the rain and wind. The nunnery is currently collecting donation for a new classroom building. Friends of the Moegyo volunteers offered lunch to the young nuns and students at this school. Moegyo team donated 100,000 kyats towards the new building.