Hope in the Dry Zone
"The bombs fall, and we run. When they stop, we come back and the teachers are waiting." In Myanmar's Dry Zone, 4,591 children are learning under tarpaulin roofs while airstrikes shake the sky above.
The Dry Zone—Ah Nyar—has become one of Myanmar's hardest-hit regions. Thousands of families have fled aerial bombings, taking shelter in monasteries, makeshift camps, and forest clearings. Children who once walked to school now learn under tarpaulin stretched between bamboo poles, taught by volunteer teachers who refuse to give up.
The challenges multiply: no medicine when children fall sick, no food when supplies run out, no shelter when the planes return. Families struggle to secure clean water. Teachers work without pay. And always, the threat of airstrikes hangs over everything.
Yet the communities persist. Volunteer teachers show up every day. Parents pool what little they have. Children keep learning, keep hoping, keep growing—even as the war rages around them.
