myME: Myanmar Mobile Education Project


​

Teashops in Myanmar are often "manned" by
​children who have no opportunity to go to school.


MISSION: Provide education via mobile classrooms to children in Myanmar (Burma) who've been compelled into indentured servitude at teashop restaurants where they're forced to work long hours every day in order to sustain their families. The mobile classrooms provide these children an opportunity to learn basic literacy, math and computer skills in a safe environment where they can gain self-confidence and develop critical thinking skills through innovative, interactive instruction.

VISION: Every child in Myanmar (Burma) has the right to access quality education no matter their circumstance. Education is a critical step toward alleviating poverty and the abuses associated with child labor. 

For many families in Myanmar, sending children to work is an undesired necessity.  We started the pilot run with 60 kids in 2 teashops in early 2014. Less than four years later, in 2018, myME has already expanded to serve more than 3,000 students from various teashops, road-side restaurants, monastic schools, and underprivileged communities in Yangon, Mandalay, Mawlamying, Myingyan, Kyauk-Se, Dala, East Dagon, and Hlaing Thar Yar townships with over 60 staff and 5 mobile classroom buses.

​The myME Project is the first mobile education solution in Burma.
While we are not the first to use non-formal education, we are the first to bring it to child laborers. In Burma, according to 2014 census data, there are 5.09 million children between ages 5-18 out of school. Around 10,000 working and out-of-school children benefited since we started the project with average 87% attendance rate.

Congratulations to our "Outstanding Students "
​Meet Hnin Nadi Winn, 
our latest Student of the Month
Scroll down within this module to read more Facebook posts
​Hnin Nadi Winn is 15 and the eldest of 4 siblings. Several years ago her parents pulled her out of school so that she could start working to support the family. This made her very sad but she worked hard despite her circumstance. Today she is still working hard--from 7 am until 5--when she is allowed to attend the myme classes. She says it's the thought of her myme classes that keep her motivated and happy at work--because now she has something to look forward to at the end of the day. In a very short time Hnin Nadi has become one of our most exemplary students. Her favorite subject is Life Skills training because as she says, "It shows me how to overcome many problems." Please watch this video featuring our most recent Student of the Month, Hnin Nadi Winn.
​​
myME Outreach for Street Children 
When the myME buses are not being used for our regular classes, we schedule days in which we invite children from the most underserved communities to climb into our mobile classroom for a full day of educational activities with our teachers, staff and volunteers. To date, we have served children in the poorest communities of Yangon, Mandalay, MyinChan, KyaukSe, MawLaMying, Dala, HlaingTharYar, and East Dagon.