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As reported in our Project Report in April, the frequent skimish between Junta army and pro-democratic armed organizations + Ethnic Armed Organizations(EAOs) prevented our site survey trips to the countryside for long.
However, as skirmish on the routs to our project sites gradually subsided (in the course of April) we could re-start conducting site surveys and completed the visits for system designing with all the schools and clinics.
Afterwards, all the contractors for the installation works of the solar systems presented to us system designing and price proposals, which, after our detailed appraisals, were all accepted. We still have some issues of concern before signing contracts as Myanmar is under Junta control, however, we shall be able to further proceed with the project implementation. Our concerns are; Foreign Exchange Regulations, INGO Registration Renewal, Official Exchange Rate vs. In-official Exchange Rate, etc. We have to find solutions to all these problems one by one to achieve our project purposes.
On top of such problems arising from the Junta governance, the rainy season is causing another difficulty of trips to our site visits. Continued rain falls in the recent days made the big river in the city of Hpa An (Kayin State) flooded and a big land slide on the important main road caused another difficulty to move.
As referred to in our report last Jan., BHN has agreed with the EAOs(Ethnic Armed Organizations) on our next project in Karen(Kayin) & Mon States as shown under.
Outline of the next project;
l * Expected Duration of the Work ; Jan.2023~Dec.2023
So far, site surveys of the schools and clinics in Kayin State is almost completed except for 2 villages which were postponed by skirmishes occurred on the way to the villages.
On the other hand, as one of the most important part of the project, to select the contractors for construction work BHN requested to 6 interested suppliers to present a model design & price quotation. After detailed inspections and discussions all the 6 companies could comply with our requirements.
Although the preparation to push forward the project is making progress, Myanmar Government issued new regulations on INGO registration in late 2022 which requires INGOs wishing to continue activities various capacities including Agreements with the related Ministries and recommendations from local governments and the procedure for such authorization is taking much time yet to pass through the red tape and our registration is not making progress yet.
Also, confrontations between the Junta VS. PDF(People Defense Forces, pro-democracy armed organization) + EAO groups are becoming harsher especially in the rural areas and our activity is always suffering from the limitations to move.
However, the destitute in the EAO villages are keenly wishing our project implementation and we are eagerly trying to overcome such difficulties.
The solar power project that started in Dec.2020,with the expected term to finish by Nov. 2021, finally completed by the end of Oc. 2022.
Lock-downs in China(where producing solar equipment) ,proliferation of Covid 19 in Myanmar & aroud the world,and,especially due to the Coup in Feb. 2021 that entailed frequent battles between Junta and people defene groups caused much delay in our work. After the Coup the battles were becoming more and more frequent in rural areas as many of the EAO(Ethnic Armed Organizations) groups are increasing ly taking sides of the revoluting people.
Two of the schools which BHN has installed computer systems for students to study how to use PCs were occupied by the Junt army soldiers and became unaccessible by our staffs.
We also had to change our planned villaged to another ones as they became dangerous for access. With such hindrances ,by extending the term by 11months,we could complete the 5th porject basically as planned.
Now, form the start of the new year, we could agree with the EAOs in Kayin (Karen) and Mon states to start next project. We proposed to EAOs to place priority to the public facilities in their villages like; (a)installation of computer systems with solar power into schools to enhance the computer literacy of the students
(b)installation of solar power and computer systems into hospitals/clinics to enhnace the serviceability to villagers.
However, due to various new regulations enforced by Junta are causing many tasks for all the INGOs active in Myanmar and our start of action may be delayed by certain period.
As our current project period is going to end soon, let me summarize our project targets.
Under difficult situation with frequent skirmishes in the villages and local roads that prevent our trips to villages and works in the villages, our planned construction works were completed by early September. Follow-up training to electricians(3) and monitoring works(4) are now underway.
As mentioned above frequent skirmishes in the countryside between Junta and PDF(People Defense Force) forced us to extend our project period until the end of Oct.
In future there may still have many difficulties in, for example, funds remittance ,imports of equipment and, of course battles between opposition groups, we are starting to negotiate with the EAOs(Ethnic Armed Organizations) to form our next phase project.
Our idea is that we have already installed substantial amount of solar systems in the village houses, we should rather concentrate our resources to improve Public Facilities like schools and clinics.
As repeated in our past reports our activity in Myanmar is still suffering much from the outbreak of COVID 19 and the Coup of Feb. 2021.
On top of these difficulties lockdowns in Chinese cities made the production of solar equipment suspended for more than a month. This delay further forced us to postpone the target date of our project completion from this May till next August.
Relocation of the projected sites from conflict prone areas to safer ones were almost fixed obtaining the understanding of EAOs(Ethnic Armed Organizations) and the installation work of solar systems to individual households is going on smoothly after some period of suspension.
We expect the installation work will be completed by the end of July.
In Mon state where conflicts are far fewer than in Kayin state, works are going on well after the delay by the lockdowns in Chinese cities.
Further, in the recent days, the Central Bank of Myanmar issued a decree that Foreign Currency remitted to the account opened in Myanmar should be converted at once into Myanmar Kyat by official exchange rate which is lower than the free market rate (by about 13% now). This decree caused further confusion and difficulties in the commercial transactions.
As above reported, the situation in Myanmar is still in turmoil, however, the requests from the EAOs in destitute are very strong and we started the planning for the next phase.
Considering that the civil war between Junta and People Defense Force(PDF) group may be prolonged, we plan to concentrate to assist higher education & betterment of medical services in the EAO villages as schools and clinics are less susceptible to attacks by Junta forces.
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