Daw Lilian Gyi: “If given the opportunity they can hold jobs just like the rest of us.” Pic: Khin Myat

IT has been seven years since Daw Lilian Gyi, 67, retired from her job as a civil servant, but that does not mean she has stopped caring for the disabled people she spent the better part of her career helping.

She served as the headmistress of the School for Adult and Disabled Children from 1971 to 2000. Since retiring she has worked as a director of the Eden Centre for Disabled Children, a local non-government institution that cares for handicapped people between the ages of six and 18 years.

Her continuing efforts were recognised last December at a ceremony marking International Day of Disabled Persons held at the International Business Centre in Yangon.

Daw Lilian Gyi’s career as a civil servant dates back to the 1960s. In 1961 she earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Yangon University, followed by a master of arts in education (with a focus on special education) from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, in 1970.

In between, from 1965 to 1966, she worked as an intern at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, where she learned to sympathise with disabled people and decided to dedicate her life to helping them find their place in society.

“I didn’t know anything about disabled people until I started working with them,” Daw Lilian Gyi said. “Now I would like to continue working with disabled children as much as I can because there are very few places in Myanmar where they can get proper care.”

“Some parents don’t know where to send their disabled children and even if they do know, the children are put on a waiting list because we have only one government school for such children in the whole country,” she said.
However, she said the number of private centres for disabled people has increased slightly since 2000.

She also said there was a shortage of skilled teachers because there were no schools in Myanmar where students can learn how to attend to the special needs of children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome or dyslexia.

“To handle these children, we need people who are patient and sympathetic,” she said.

Daw Lilian Gyi said that in collaboration with non-government organisations and the government’s Social Welfare Department, the Eden Centre invites foreign specialists to lecture staff who are working with disabled people.
She said she also shares the knowledge she gains from attending workshops in foreign countries about managing disabled people.

Daw Lilian Gyi said the lives of disabled people would be vastly improved if society changed its attitudes towards such people.

“Most people in Myanmar assume that disabled people suffer from mental retardation and cannot work or stand on their own feet,” she said. “In reality, they are just people whose brains work differently from most people.”

“If given the opportunity they can hold jobs just like the rest of us. But without these opportunities they are forced to live outside normal society,” she said, adding that Eden Centre employs disabled staff.

Daw Lilian Gyi’s latest project is to have a group of disabled people build a shelter in the village of Myaungdaga in Taikkyi township where they can live and work.

“We will teach them how to do things like make candles at the centre and sell them to provide for their livelihoods,” she said.