Completion report on LCA System project in Gwa Township, Rakhine State

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Completion report on LCA System project in Gwa Township, Rakhine State

2023.2.27 Mon 15:59

Completion report for the 2nd year project

This project commenced in March,2021 after being selected and approved as Japanese NGO Project (Note) managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan in the second year 2020 (Project period: 10^th of March 2021 to 31^st of October, 2022).

This project follows the 1^st year project（Project period: 1^st of January, 2020 to 31^st of December, 2020).

This project is to install a Learning and Communication Assist system for students and residents (LCA system) and hazard maps at schools and villages in Gwa Township, the southernmost part of Rakhine State, which is very vulnerable to natural disasters especially cyclones.

The mentioned systems and hazard maps are used to improve the disaster prevention ability of students and residents and to raise awareness of health and hygiene.

Figure-1　Locations of schools with LCA systems and hazard maps　（PDF）

The main activities of the project are;

(1) Installation of LCA system: 26 schools (including 11 schools carried over from the first year)

(2) Creation and installation of hazard maps: 15 schools

(3) Disaster prevention training session for teachers

(4) Improvement of awareness of health and hygiene

In the first year of the project, some installation works had been carried over to the second year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the second year, due to the influence of military coup on the 1st of February, the project was delayed by three months and the first entry into project sites was allowed at the end of June 2022. However, thanks to the efforts of all involved, audiovisual educational televisions were installed in 26 schools, including 11 schools that were carried over from the first year. The school officials and the township’s education department were pleased and we, BHN Association, received a letter of appreciation from the director of education.

Since we had anticipated that the construction work would be significantly delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the military coup, we consulted with MOFA and received approval to extend the project period to the end of October, 2022. During this period, we were able to complete all the work originally planned, including the installation of LCA systems and hazard maps at 26 schools, thanks to the concerted efforts of all parties involved while ensuring safety throughout the construction and other work.

Photo-1　LCA system Installation at school

Photo-2　Installed LCA system components

Photo-3　 Explanation of how to handle the LCA system at briefing session

Photo-4　 Temple of the venue and scene of the workshop (BHN headquarters staff participated in on an online-workshop）

Photo-5　 Local people gathered at the briefing session upon completion of the hazard map installation

Photo-6　Scene of the health check examination of students

Photo-7　Door-to-door to survey the health status of residents

Photo-8　 Health and hygiene class using the LCA system

Photo-9　Commemorative photo by participants in review meeting debriefing session

As a concluding event to demonstrate the project’s achievements, a Workshop and Review Meeting were held in August, 2022, inviting officers of administrative division and health and hygiene department officials. For this debriefing session, as it was difficult to go to the site from Japan, a ceremony was held for the first time through online connecting the temple in Gwa Township, to Yangon, and to Japan.

In September, we visited schools and villages where the 1st and 2nd year project were implemented to provide guidance on the status of equipment operation and implementation of health and hygiene awareness raising in consideration of future maintenance, and the project was completed at the end of October 2022 within the extended period.

The following is the URL of the video introducing our activities of Gwa project in Rakhine State.

Link:https://youtu.be/r39pncthjJs

Click on the URL or the image to view the video.

Note: Grant Assistant for Japanese NGO projects is a fund which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan provides for economic and social development projects conducted in developing countries and regions by Japanese international NGO.

Project coordinator　 Eiichi Watanabe