Life is good for 33-year-old Moses Banda.
The father of three runs a grocery stall and works in the food and beverage section at the luxurious Radisson Blu Hotel in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka.
Recently he bought some land in Rufunsa, east of Lusaka city, where he plans to start a farm.
“I plan to go into farming full-time in the next few years,” Moses says.
Life could have easily taken a different path, however. Moses says he’s “very lucky” to have everything he has now.
“I’m what I am today because one person called a sponsor cared enough to ensure that I was healthy and, above all, got the necessary education to enable me to face the future with confidence,” he says.
When he was six years old Moses was enrolled into ChildFund’s sponsorship program. A year later he was sponsored, and his life took a turn.
Growing up in a family with five children and one income – his father worked as a security guard – it was unlikely he or his siblings would go to school.
However, after joining ChildFund’s sponsorship program he found himself among books and classrooms, and envisioning a different future for himself.
“As a result of my sponsorship, my parents never worried about my school requirements as all these were provided by ChildFund,” he says.
“My clothing and shoes were also from ChildFund.”
He threw himself into his studies and was determined to finish grade 12 to get the best chance at life.
After his sponsorship came to an end when he finished grade 10, he began working to pay for his school fees.
“I knew my dad could not afford to pay, and I did not want to stop school, so I paid until I completed grade 12 with the salary I was getting then,” he says.
“I wanted to live a better life than what we had in my father’s house.”
Khet Khet goes through her homework as her mother prepares rice in the kitchen, a wooden platform on stilts attached to the exterior of the little shack they call home.
The view from the kitchen is like everyone else’s in the neighbourhood: rocky, dirt paths littered with rubble, ashes and scraps of plastic, and colourful clothes on makeshift washing lines.
Khet Khet’s absorbed in her school notes. She’s a happy nine-year-old with a big smile.
Despite living in the slum on the outskirts of Mandalay, in central Myanmar, she has high hopes for the future.
She wants to become a teacher after she finishes school, and has boundless enthusiasm for her studies.
It wasn’t always like this, however. A few years ago she watched her eldest sister, Ma Nwe, drop out of school at the age of nine to help their mother at home.
When their father died, Ma Nwe was forced to work at a manufacturing factory at the age of 13 to support the family.
Today she works a 70-hour week, and gets only one day off each month.
For a time Khet Khet saw a similar future for herself.
One in four children in Myanmar don’t finish primary school, and families in slums are more likely to miss out as they’re not officially registered as residents so children cannot attend public schools.
ChildFund Myanmar’s support for monastic schools for vulnerable communities, such as Khet Khet’s, has provided children with a chance to learn basic literacy and numeracy skills, and take back some control of their future.
Since 2012, with the support of the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), ChildFund has implemented education programs and training for parents and teachers, and school management teams, as well as provided teaching aids to schools, established computer rooms, libraries, and classrooms.
Daw Myint, a grade 7 teacher who has been at Khet Khet’s school for five years, says a recent expansion of classrooms has had a positive impact on the learning and teaching experience.
“Two different classes used to be squeezed into one room,” she says. “There were so many students.
“It was noisy and disruptive, and the teachers had to try very hard to keep the students attentive.”
With support from ChildFund, the old dilapidated classroom was transformed into a two-storey building with four rooms.
Daw Myint said it was almost impossible to teach in the old classroom during the colder months.
“The wall-less classroom was open to the wind and rain, and the unpaved floor was cold and the teachers often fell sick,” she says.
“The new building is weather-proof and I don’t have to worry about those kinds of problems any more.”
In 2017 Australians donated more than $247,000 to ChildFund’s Myanmar Education Appeal, which focuses on improving access to primary education.
In addition, these supporters sent personal messages of support to younger students on a range of colourful flashcards, featuring numbers, animals and text in both English and Burmese, to help with basic numeracy and literacy skills.
