© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0560/Win Naing - Myanmar, 2008

By Sandar Linn and Angela Brigid Thaung

Su Pyi Phyo Lwin, then a 7-year-old second grade student, couldn’t keep her eyes off an architect’s rendering of how life – school life at least – would change when a new year began this June.

Cyclone-affected children in Myanmar return to the classroom
©UNICEF Video

LAPUTTA TOWNSHIP, Myanmar, 22 July 2008 – The school year here in the southern Irrawaddy Delta region was supposed to resume last month. The destruction and damage affecting nearly 60 per cent of the area’s public schools in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, however, prevented classes from starting on time.

This storage room turned playground at Yangon Kayin Baptist Women’s Association is one of the many child-friendly spaces now operating in Myanmar with UNICEF support.
© UNICEF Video

By Nattha Keenapan

YANGON, Myanmar, 5 June 2008 – At the offices of the Yangon Kayin Baptist Women’s Association, a room once used for storing office equipment and documents is now filled with laughing and playing children, all of whom were displaced by the devastation of Cyclone Nargis.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0562/NaingBoys at State Primary School No.11 in Hlaing Thar Township, Yapon, read an illustrated book on life skills

By Angela B. Thaung

YANGON, Myanmar, 3 June 2008 – A new school year has begun as children head back to classes, just one month after Cyclone Nargis damaged or destroyed more than 4,000 schools in Myanmar.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0560/NaingA teacher registers students for school on the first day of class since the cyclone, at State Primary School No. 32 in Hlaing Thar Yar Township

By Angela Thaung

YANGON, Myanmar, 27 May 2008 – As many cyclone-affected children are preparing to head back to school next week, UNICEF and its partners have been distributing essential school supplies by everything from truck to boat.