Life in the small villages where we work follows the rhythm of the days and seasons. Daily routines are only interrupted by village celebrations such as weddings and Thanksgiving, or ethnic celebrations such as the Karen New Year which follows the lunar calendar, or the war.
The ever-present civil war that has been ongoing since World War II and has been forcing villagers to be on guard ever since.
This means that when we implement a project, we have to take all of this into account.
We never know how long a building will be in use. If Tatmadaw* appears, the villagers will need to flee, and the village will likely be burned down before it can be rebuilt. However, we can use the process up to a completed building in a sensible way to collaborate on local terms, bring new knowledge to the village and create ownership of the schools so that the parents have an extra reason to send their children there.
*soldiers of the current Myanmar military regime.
This is the process we are normally following:
We do not initiate projects ourselves, but welcome requests from villagers, schools and other local stakeholders with a range of religious, national and political views.
The projects we choose to implement must be anchored and agreed upon in the village. They are mainly projects that increase the level of the existing education in our area, but can also be community projects, such as wells and toilets, that increase the livelihood of the village population in general.
Once the project has been requested, our assessment and research period start. Our main goal is to find out whether this project is wanted or needed. Gyaw Gyaw carries out projects that are needed.
This process lasts for years and provides us with necessary and useful information about the village’s formal and informal structures, local resources, access to land, how the school is run and other opportunities for development.
An important part of this period is also to create an understanding of the way Gyaw Gyaw works and anchor our frameworks of sustainability with local stakeholders.
The power of a gift is very real, and we must be very aware of this in each part of the process. Therefore, we put great emphasis on giving enough time to communicate and to understand each other and create a common ground for cooperation and experimentation.
After the project is agreed upon, a series of new decisions are made step by step: how, when and with what materials will the project be built? How can we involve the village in the best possible way?
The first sketch is based on function and available materials that place the building in the landscape. This is created by one of the architects in close collaboration with the whole team. It is then further developed internally before it is brought to the village for feedbacks from their representatives. After several rounds, the main design and the budget are decided upon, and the implementation can begin.
The plan remains flexible and open to change throughout the process and the team has great freedom to implement details and solve challenges on site to take into account better ideas, changed access to resources and any local or global developments that affect the viability of the project.
The planning and construction phases are intertwined, and both the design and the implementation of the building remain open to change throughout the whole process.
Before Gyaw Gyaw starts working in a village, the villagers prepare all the local materials needed. After this, the Gyaw Gyaw team moves to the village and construction begins.
We try to use as much local labor as possible. It contributes to the economy of the village and also facilitates a greater sense of ownership of the school.
It is not a matter of course that parents send their children to school in these small villages, so involving the parents is an important part of increasing the level of education in the area.
When the construction process is finished, the building is given to the community. The official handover takes place through a meeting with representatives from Gyaw Gyaw, the school and the leaders of the village.
Local residents receive information and the necessary measures to take care of the building, and we also offer them guidance for maintenance and repair for the first three years after completion.
After the handover, Gyaw Gyaw evaluates how the project is being used, how it is aging and how well it is performing in accordance with the intentions of the original plan. This process unfolds in close communication with the villagers, teachers and stakeholders. Based on their feedback, we compare various projects we have done over time and try to take the successes with us further and learn as much as possible from our own mistakes.
