"Helping others is the key to a good life"👷🏾
Published: Aug 18, 2022 Reading time: 1 minute
Rakhine State is the westernmost state of Myanmar; it has a population of approximately three million people. In 2020, a portion of the population was displaced due to increasing unrest. Although the conflict ended in 2021, 130,000 Myanmar residents still live in IDP camps. A further 600,000 or so remain in their villages, but without basic facilities nor the ability to move freely.
Natural disasters and armed conflicts have motivated Kyaw Kyaw Nyein to help his neighbours. He initially worked for local non-profit organisations and later came to work for us, where he helped with aid distributions. Today, he is employed as a WASH (WAter, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Field Facilitator, and he has been working at PIN for three years. Kyaw renovates latrines, builds rainwater tanks and constructs places where women can wash in safety.
The IDP camps' facilities are outdated and built on a makeshift basis. In addition, most of the camps are located in flood zones, which is a big problem, especially during the rainy season. Kyaw and his colleagues use boats to get around, which is not the only obstacle during their journeys; travel restrictions are often imposed because of the political instability in the Mrauk U region.
Kyaw sees a future in sustainable development that would also provide jobs for IDPs who have long been without financial income due to conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic.
