There are many different Kachin tribes living in this area, and the region is administered through a Kachin traditional ruling system, according to which people mostly obey their leaders, and since they didn’t protest, there haven’t been that many protests here. But the CDM has been quite strong because most of the teachers at government schools are from ethnic minority groups. Actually, this is a conflict-affected region, with both the Myanmar military and a number of armed groups present, some only for business purposes. I would say that around 90% of the area here is controlled by one armed group or another.

In the past few months, I had been planning to open a school for children from villages around here, but since the number of Covid-19 cases was on the rise, we had to create a kind of a home-schooling environment for the children instead. There are only a few children here now, basically those that could not go back to their remote villages. Since the parents of these children could not provide any education for them even if the children could go back home, they’ve asked us to keep the children here so they can keep learning. So, my daily duty is teaching these children. But I don’t want to talk much about my difficulties in the current situation, because I know everyone has their hardships.

As a peace builder, I have discussions with many different kinds of people, from different ethnic backgrounds. Personally, I want federalism. And I want the majority Bamar people to understand the situation of minority ethnic people in Myanmar, and to change their perspectives in this regard. There would be a lot of improvement in the country if the ethnic people could fully and freely practice their traditions and cultures. Education plays an important role in the federalism discussion. We also need strong civil society organizations in Myanmar. If we succeed in establishing federal democracy, we will become a model for the whole ASEAN community.”