Myanmar: Columban College severely damaged by earthquake - appeal launched

Devastated by earthquake - Higher Education College in Mandalay - image Columbans

Columban Fr Neil Magill founded the Higher Education College (HEC) in Mandalay after realising that many young people in Myanmar were struggling in life and had difficulty in finding jobs. The college has been "severely damaged" in Myanmar's earthquake.

Fr Neil writes: "You will have been shocked and distressed by the pictures on TV about the devastating earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).

In 2007 I started a Higher Education College (HEC) in Mandalay for bright but poor young women and men to train as teachers and development workers. We have hundreds of graduates who have returned to remote villages to teach.

The past 17 years have been challenging but the happiest time of my life. I have never met in any other country such kind, gracious and appreciative young people with cheerful eyes and joyous hearts.

However, for the 160 young people presently studying at the HEC everything has changed. They have been living under a brutal military junta since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's government in the coup on 1st February 2021. 50,000 have been killed, 25,000 are languishing in dilapidated prisons, 3.5 million have been displaced and living in Internally Displaced camps.

The military has turned the country into a failed State with a humanitarian crisis. Villages have been wiped out, Christian churches, Buddhist monasteries and Muslim mosques have been bombed and burnt. Two of our graduates were shot dead by the military, another one is in prison and others have disappeared with no contact.

A litany of widespread brutality by a government on its own people. What kind of government appeals for international aid as it continues to bomb its own people?

On top of this tyranny the powerful earthquake has brought further devastation, grief and suffering. The junta will not allow foreign journalists into the country after the earthquake as they don't want the world to know the extent of the devastation.

The junta is compounding the people's suffering by continuing airstrikes within hours of the earthquake and as people search for loved ones in the rubble. The junta is downplaying the number of deaths and the humanitarian crisis. Many countries are giving aid but these countries need to be careful that the aid does not go through the government as it will never get to the needy.

Our Higher Education College (HEC) in Mandalay has been severely damaged. The teachers and students were lucky to get out of the classrooms safely when the earthquake struck as bricks, lumps of concrete and debris from the ceilings was raining down on them.

At present the students cannot go back into their classrooms or dormitories as they are so badly damaged and very unsafe. At night they sleep on the ground outside. Most people are living and sleeping on the streets. Food, medicine and clean water are scarce.

From being young people with cheerful eyes and joyous hearts they are now traumatised and sad wondering what their future might be."

Please help Fr Neil rebuild the Higher Education College (HEC) in Mandalay. You can do this by donating online here: https://columbans.ie/donate/ Alternatively, call the Mission Office at 00353 46 9098275 or you can send a cheque payable to 'Columban Missionaries' to the Far East Office, Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath C15 AY2Y - please add a note stating it is for the Myanmar Appeal.