SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

The increasing numbers of Microfinance Institutions are trying to win over the 33 million unbacked residents in the country. Nowadays, microfinance in Myanmar is recognized as one of the essential tools to wipe out poverty affected societies. It is working to align existing players with new market entrants, investment and reform to bring a new modern sustainable sector.

The popularity of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which are commonly referred to as drones, is gaining steady momentum over the past few years thanks to its ample qualities useful to a number of sectors and a variety of purposes: increasing work efficiency and productivity, decreasing workload and production costs, improving accuracy, and so on despite the fact that they were originally developed for sensitive and complex military operations.

Ever since its emergence late last year, the Coronavirus pandemic has cast spotlight on the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by the healthcare sector; the ever-increasing rate of daily confirmed cases worldwide is a sign that the curve is yet to flatten.

Shunned from the public and invisible in the world of work due to various accessibility barriers, People with Disabilities (PwD) already experienced some form of employment hardship prior to the global pandemic. This time around, 15% of the world population who live with disability are facing ever greater challenges sustaining their livelihoods as they are less able to avoid catching Covid-19 and more likely to die from it.

While India is scrambling its way out of the covid-19 pandemic these past few months, a “force” has come to the limelight of Indian citizens in a form of “Women in Pink”. A national daily expresses in their article that these daring women actually became the fronliners in Indian communities in the face of the pandemic and that they are called ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) Workers.

Early this year, the speaker of Parliament of Uganda, Rebecca Kadaga, launched the World Wide Fund for Natures’ Earth Hour 2020, an environmental campaign against plastic pollution. The campaign that sought to address the effects of massive plastic use and disposal, took off on February 13, 2020 and at that time, it seemed to be a success as it was actually possible to imagine the end of the plastic revolution in Uganda - until Covid-19 knocked in and changed everything.

The lockdown decision in Bangladesh means that 42 million students, including those already out-of-school, are no longer able to attend school and could be prohibited from doing so until September. Some of those are now studying online for the first time.

The Rohingya crisis shows that refugee situations bear both human and environmental consequences. In an article by UNCHR (2001), it is stated that: “Refugees, however, cannot be expected to put environmental considerations ahead of their own safety and welfare.”

Atypical incident over the lockdown made Malaysians shell shocked when Veveonah Mosibin, an 18-year-old student from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) climbed up a hill and later on made a bamboo hut for herself to get better internet access for her studies. Her act became an internet discussion in Malaysia.

The very reason as to why smart cities must be and is the way forward is because technology and ideas have evolved to the magnitude where solutions do not seem far away anymore. After all, “the best way to predict the future is to design it.”

Will our children be granted the rights to respect different sexual orientations and to know healthy sexuality education? No one knows the answer, yet we all will have to wait along with our firm beliefs.

For these rural kids of Myanmar, transportation has always been one of the issues in access to education. This often leads to becoming out of school children ( OOSC ). After dropping out of school, the chances are very slim that they will get back to school but rather work with their family or work in a city. The above quotes are from real-life stories that should reveal many of the children from rural regions in the country.

Solomon Islands is one of the 15 countries around the world that yet to register any confirm cases of the novel coronavirus. With this good news, it doesn’t stop the men, women, and especially youths in Solomon Islands to prepare.

“I know exactly what Myanmar's health system is lacking the most – it lacks resources” said a doctor and a freelance artist who single-handedly started a fundraising project for the frontliners. Dr. Ni Ni Win Tun was well aware of the already precarious circumstances of her fellow healthcare professionals, who have been tackling the pandemic under limited medical equipment and facilities regardless of a high risk of infection.

Myanmar’s standard of education is lagging far behind the developing world, having faced decades of an underfunded education sector. According to UNICEF Myanmar, the effects range from weak school infrastructures and outdated teaching methods and curriculum to having insufficient numbers of qualified teachers.