Myanmar - a place to play

The children can be heard from the jetty, some 50 metres away. A few minutes’ walk and the World Vision Child Friendly Space (CFS) appears, surrounded by boys running and girls skipping ropes and throwing balls. Their faces, full of sincere smiles, melt hearts.

They clap and chant as they sing inside the CFS. After singing, the more than 80 children group to paint and colour pictures, build toy houses, play football or skip ropes. 

“What the children are getting from the CFS is the best thing that has happened to us,” says father-of-eight Soe Myint, as he watches the children play. Soe’s four sons and daughters all come to the CFS. They live in a village, two hours by boat from Pyapon, one of the towns hit hard during Cyclone Nargis.
 
“I am especially glad for my son Pho Htoo, who is six years old,” he says. “He was born with his right leg and hand deformed. His short fingers can not grasp things properly and he can not stand flat-footed on his right foot.”

A year ago, Soe Myint tried to enrol his son in school when the boy was 5, but he was denied entrance because of a lack of staff able to care for children with special needs.
 
When Pho Htoo heard this, he tried to stand up on his own to show there was nothing wrong, but foot swelled form the effort. Soe Myint says: “We treated his swollen foot with traditional medicines and herbs and he himself tried so hard, that in a few weeks, he could put down his foot and started to limp around.” But his point had been made and as a result, Pho Htoo was due to start school in June 2008.

Then Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2, and washed away Pho Htoo’s hopes of starting school.

“I was cold and frightened when we were running in the rain,” Pho Htoo recalls.

His 17-year-old sister Pa Pa said: “Mum took Pho Htoo and two other children, while Dad and I took the rest of the children and ran in the waist-high water on the village road.  My mum stumbled into a pond while she was running. We had to pull her out.”

Many of the villagers ran to higher ground on the road when their homes began flooding.

About ten days after Nargis hit the country, World Vision arrived at Pho Htoo’s village with a boatful of rice. 

A few months later, a temporary school was rebuilt, meaning Pho Htoo was finally able to go to school. World Vision also built a bamboo shelter nearby to establish the CFS. 

Pho Htoo comes here every morning. “I like building houses best,” says Pho Htoo. “When I grow up, I will build houses.”

Soe Myint says Pho Htoo’s health has even improved. “His leg became stronger after playing in the school and the centre,” he says. “He is running around more.”
 
The CFS is a place for children affected by Nargis to come, play and try to forget their fears.

“If we are at home, and when there are signs that the rains are coming, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I just don't know what to do,” says one child Nilar Win.  

“Now, I'm less frightened – but I will never forget that day.”