Kanchin and Kayin states — Myanmar
Digital libraries with the Tekkatho Foundation
Virtual Classrooms
Area — Special projects
Beneficiaries — 400 primary and secondary school children and 270 young adults
Tekkatho Foundation will implement packed-full of educational resources at two hard-to-reach, off-grid learning centers in border states of Myanmar. The first implementation will be at Ningshawng Social Institute (NSI) in Palana, Kachin State and the second location is Maw Paw Khoet community centre in Kayin state.
Tekkatho creates portable, tough, self-contained digital libraries that work as hotspots without the need for an internet connection, they are called My Libraries. They are affordable ready-to-go digital libraries especially designed for use in Myanmar. Each capsule stores educational resources and makes that content available even in places with no internet connection or reliable electricity by acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot. MyLibrary is low-powered, and the 8-hour battery can be re-charged from a small solar panel. At both centres, Tekkatho will run programs of regular training delivered by local Education Coordinators.
My library will also contain practical healthcare materials to help communities with no internet or phone signal and limited medical facilities to prevent, contain and treat COVID-19. Tekkatho continually curates new content on a cloud server. MyLibrary works off-grid but is completely portable and content can be updated locally whenever the MyLibrary is connected to the internet or manually.
Our mission is to transform education in Myanmar, right now.
Tekkatho Foundation
Dr Celia Russell (Co-Founder and Chair of Trustees has a longstanding interest in how digital technologies can be used to advance education in developing regions. After her first trip to Myanmar in 2009, Celia teamed up with Paul and other colleagues at the University of Manchester to think of ways a digital library could work in Myanmar and the eTekkatho project began. Celia led eTekkatho through its early years as a University of Manchester project, and in 2014 co-founded the charity.