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Young people taking part in ChildFund Myanmar’s youth empowerment project are playing a critical role in helping to keep their communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we share stories of how three young people are applying the leadership skills they have learnt in ChildFund’s project to make a difference in their villages.

Every second night 19-year-old Htay Lwin stands watch at the edge of his village in Tanintharyi, south of Myanmar, keeping an eye out for people looking to pass through the gates.

Htay Lwin is on watch from 9pm to 4am, the curfew hours enforced by the Government of Myanmar to restrict people from unnecessary travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. If Htay Lwin sees someone at the gates during these hours, he stops them and takes their temperature to check for a fever and make sure they do not have the virus.

He is happy to be able to help keep his village safe.

“I didn’t know that helping my community could please me so much,” he says.

Htay Lwin says the hours he keeps watch at the gates is a rare period in his day where he can relax and feel respite from everything that is going on because of the pandemic.

Htay Lwin is one of dozens of young people taking part in ChildFund Myanmar’s youth empowerment project who have put up their hand over the past several months to help stop COVID-19 from infecting and spreading in their communities. “Before joining ChildFund’s youth empowerment project, I was very shy,” Htay Lwin says. “Now, I have the confidence to participate anywhere my community needs me.”

Hundreds of primary school children in Timor-Leste now have access to a free digital library for the first time to help them improve their reading skills.

ChildFund Timor-Leste and our partner Library for All have introduced the digital library, stored on tablets, to more than 600 students in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities in Manatuto municipality. This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).


Students from Grade 1 to Grade 3 can choose from 130 titles, including stories written by local authors in Tetun and developed by Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education.

School co-ordinator Engracia from Beboro Primary says the digital library provides students with a diverse range of age-appropriate reading materials that they would otherwise not be able to access.

“At our school the children have read the same books many times,” she says. “They have been needing new ones, and there have not been enough books for every child to read at the same time. They usually have to take turns.”

The new technology has been welcomed by students and teachers, who were trained on how to use the and manage the library at the start of July.

Grade 3 student Paula says: “I am happy because we can read more stories together.”

Nine-year-old Baltazar, who is also in Grade 3, has enjoyed choosing from a variety of books to read. “I like the stories and pictures; they’re good,” he says.

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