Residents walk though Kyein Chaung Gyi model village near Bogale in Ayeyarwady Division earlier this month.

NEARLY 400 elementary schools in cyclone-hit Bogale are set to reopen next month, in time for the 2009-2010 school year. The schools are being built by private contractors funded by the Ministry of Education.

Though local statistics show that only 212 school buildings existed in Bogale before the cyclone, hundreds of children also attended school in monasteries and other places used for education.

The ministry first allocated 57 schools for rebuilding in January and then, in a second phase, identified a further 300 in April. Donors and NGOs are funding the reconstruction of 44 more schools.

“We are building a total of 48 schools in the villages. The specifications, structure and building design were provided by the ministry,” U Ye Min Oo, the project director of Htoo Trading Company, told The Myanmar Times.

The Ministry of Education also funds the cost of building, at K12,000 per square foot, to the private companies, which include Diamond Mercury, Yee Mon Aung, Htoo Trading, H2 Engineers Group and Nay La Win.

Schoolchildren in Bogale, one of the areas hit by last year’s Cyclone Nargis, have since been studying in temporary schools. According to the statistics of the township department of education, there are five high schools, 212 primary schools, and three middle schools in Bogale.

“We will donate the school building for Kyein Chaung Gyi village from our foundation, and we will establish Kyein Chaung Gyi as a model villa ge. We’ve built 210 houses there to settle the villagers, which the government gave them for free,” U Ye Min Oo said.

“We also gave the villagers K100,000 each to earn their living. We spent K3 billion on rehabilitation for cyclone-affected people,” he added.

In Kyein Chaung Gyi village, at the end of May they will build cyclone shelters and a 30-foot high hill for weather observations. The shelter can accommodate about 500 people and there is pond that can store more than 5 million gallons of water.

The Htoo Foundation donated K416 million to the cost, establishing a model village and providing fertiliser and power tillers in cyclone-affected areas of the delta and Yangon Division.

The model village in Kyein Chaung Gyi will eventually contain 400 homes, accommodating about 600 people. The population before the cyclone was about 3200.

The Htoo Foundation provided rice and money to the villagers, as well as the K100,000 cash donation.

“I used to money the foundation gave me to open a small shop selling vegetables and groceries. It gives me a daily income,” said Ma Sann, 35.

“I had a house now, but I’ve no family. Now I live alone,” village resident U Win, 52, told The Myanmar Times. “I was happy to get the house without paying, on the understanding that I will not sell for three years, but I’m very sorry not to have my family.”