Construction
Our local NGO partner, Child’s Dream, establishes a close partnership with the community leaders and the school management when developing educational infrastructure projects to ensure a more successful outcome. This is seen in terms of successfully meeting educational needs and supporting community development that leads to greater sustainability.
At Ba Hoe Middle School the community was encouraged to actively participate in the construction. This participation has given villagers a stronger sense of pride and ownership of their school. The community contributed by providing wood and bamboo for construction, filling up the foundation of the school building, as well as offering their unskilled labour.
For this project, Child’s Dream collaborated with the Karenni Education Department (KnED)—one of the ethnic education service providers in Myanmar. KnED together with a local contractor, managed the overall construction, labour, furniture, and transportation of construction materials to the site. The organisation was paid in accordance with the progress of construction. As a warranty for the quality of the work, 5% of the total labour cost is being held back for one year.
The construction started on 15 March 2020. A couple of weeks later, COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Myanmar. To curb infections, the Myanmar government imposed nationwide full lockdown in April, with strict restrictions on movement, which resulted in delays in delivery of construction materials. Despite all this, the whole construction process ran smoothly and no other major challenges were encountered. Child’s Dream is very satisfied with the community cooperation and the overall result of the construction project. The building was fully completed on 17 July 2020.