Through your commitment to ADRA, you are part of bringing education to children in hard-to-reach and fragile places. But education is more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. It’s also learning about one’s value as a human. It’s learning, perhaps for the first time, of the inherent rights one is born with. This kind of education is just as life changing as that which happens in a classroom.

At least it was Ma Hnin Aye.* She lives in a northern state in Myanmar where conflict and instability prey upon communities. Compounding the security situation, Ma Hnin Aye and her four-year-old son faced violence and trauma in their own home.

“My husband was always on the phone with another woman and dating secretly…After nine months of their relationship, I couldn’t endure it anymore. I told him I knew he was cheating with another woman. He told me to catch him if I could. When I told him not to date the other woman, he started arguing with me.”

The argument quickly turned violent, with her husband beating her until she could no longer stand.

“I always tell my close friend about my problems with my husband. When I told her I didn’t want to continue my relationship, she gave me information about the Women’s LEAD office under the BRIGHT project, which is supporting women who face violence.”

The BRIGHT project, with funding from Global Affairs Canada and you, is supporting education for the most vulnerable in Myanmar, Niger, and Sudan. BRIGHT assists out-of-school children to return to school; provides pathways out of poverty for youth; and works with survivors of gender-based violence, like Ma Hnin Aye, to access the care and support they need.

The Women’s LEAD staff, partners in the BRIGHT project, warmly welcomed Ma Hnin Aye and listened to her story. After outlining all the services they could provide, they asked how they could support her. She requested medical care after the horrible beating her husband inflicted on her.

“When we returned from the hospital, they gave me the psychological support I needed.”

Ma Hnin Aye now understands her value and her rights. Her life has changed for the better as a result, free from the domestic violence that once shaped her days.

“Now I’m not as weak as I used to be. Now I live and work with my son. We live a peaceful life.”

Ma Hnin Aye wants this freedom from fear and harm to be the reality for all. She shares what she has learned and the services provided by Women’s LEAD and BRIGHT with her friends and community.

“I would like to say thank you to Women’s LEAD and ADRA for assisting women survivors of violence.”

Ma Hnin Aye’s thanks also goes to you who make work like this possible. Thank you!