A precious gift for Ma The Phyu’s family

U Tun Naing and Ma Aye Htay have a big family by Myanmar’s standards. The parents, who are 40 and 37 respectively, have seven children ranging from three to 20 years old. The children who are of school age are enrolled in the local school. Their toddler stays at home during the day with father U Tun Naing, who cannot work because he has suffered two strokes. The oldest three siblings join their mom, Ma Aye Htay, as day laborers.

Despite having four paid workers, the family is very poor. On top of that, they are facing a lot of medical bills. Consequently, they were prioritized by their community to partner with CWS for assistance in building a new, sanitary latrine.

The whole family benefits from this improvement in their lives, but 14-year-old Ma The Phyu is especially grateful. “I am so happy to have a clean latrine. Before, we had an unsafe latrine with falling-down walls and I did not feel good going to toilet because I was afraid someone would see me. I especially did not want to use toilet when I had my menstrual period, so I always waited until it was dark to use the latrine – which was really dangerous. So, this safe and secure latrine is a precious gift to me. I really want all my girlfriends to have hygienic latrines, too. My whole family feels so proud to have a good latrine – even though we are a poor family.”

The family’s house.