Microloans are Building a Future for Myanmar Children

Schoolmaster U San Win Soe is proud of the children he teaches at Oasis Boarding School: not only does he spend each day teaching first to seventh grade, but his school ensures children of all economic backgrounds are receiving high quality food, board and care. 

Before U San Win Soe met microfinance institution VisionFund Myanmar, the school had just ten students, no toilets, no electricity and just a small, manual well for drinking water. His students, who were the children of farmers near the village of Hsipaw, often needed to stay at the school during term to save long travel times.

Determined to make the school a better place for the children to live, and to improve the financial situation of the school, U San Win Soe took a microloan of 400,000 kyat (USD$300) from VisionFund Myanmar. He installed the school’s first toilet, followed by two more in the second loan cycle, and put a fence around the school for the protection of the students. 

As more students took an interest in the school – especially those who lived further away and wished to board – U San Win Soe took further loans with VisionFund Myanmar and installed baths, repaired roofs, and added extra dormitories and classrooms to the original building. As more children came to the improved school to board, electricity and water tanks were added to improve the health and wellbeing of the students.

By the time VisionFund Myanmar had issued U San Win Soe’s most recent loan of nearly 3 million kyat (USD$2255), the school was growing famous in the area for its care for the children, and U San Win Soe employed extra teachers to support his classes, and even employed his own siblings to cook, clean and take care of the children’s needs. This is what VisionFund Myanmar's Small and Growing Business (SGB) program was designed to achieve - support entrepreneurs with larger businesses to develop their own financial situations, creating jobs in local economies and in their communities.

The regular, nutritious meals are ensuring that children from remote communities are accessing better quality food than they might have done at home, helping them to remain focused in class, and the school is seeing improvements in its grades every year. U San Win Soe even purchased a small truck last year to transport students and staff around the community, and even to and from the school during term time. 

U San Win Soe believes that the Oasis Boarding School will be able to teach and care for more than 100 children within the next few years, and he intends to use his loan cycles to build more dormitories and hire extra staff from the community. Students are coming from far away villages because the reputation of the Oasis is so good.

“VisionFund trusted me and helped me when my school was struggling,” he says. “After taking the loan, I am able to invest in the school and the children’s futures.”