As we were now dealing with other groups of Burmese people, we changed our name to Burma Education Partnership (BEP), Burma being a name that was more internationally recognisable.
Gradually, as the name Myanmar took more of a hold, we called ourselves Mobile Education Partnerships (MEP), as this reflected our approach more, both in terms of physical travel and flexibility of support.
This adapted project worked with a small group of local teachers who had the potential to become trainers themselves. We provided a Cambridge English course for them alongside a teacher training programme, with the aim of creating a support-team who would help to mentor and train other local teachers. See below
MEP Institute has been founded in Mon State.
Kachin state - Northern Myanmar See below
When we first started out we were solely UK nationals. As time went on we had volunteers from many nationalities and now our teachers/trainers and admin staff are practically 100% local Burmese and Thai nationals.
Our new Foundation Board based in Thailand are all Thai nationals and the Board and teacher/trainers in Myanmar are solely Myanmar nationals.
Our funding comes from local donations both individual and group, events, charitable trust funds and international NGOs. We have evolved from a very small UK charity to an organisation which is now well respected in both Thailand and Myanmar working alongside other governmental and charitable organisations.
Owing to our substantial history, we have acquired many stories and photos which may help to build up a picture of our activities.
Our Story
Migrant Schools - Teaching and Teacher Training
Many Burmese have come to Thailand to escape poverty in their own country. They form a pool of cheap labour for farms and factories and at worst, as scavengers on the municipal dump (see picture).
Lives are often precarious and insecure. Migrant communities, working with the Thai authorities, have done their best to establish schools to provide a level of education for their children.
MEP works with teachers in the classroom and delivers teacher training in these schools using mobile units.
Kachin State - Northern Myanmar
Myitkyina and Maija Yang Teacher Training 2022-23
An important element of MEP’s ethos is to work with vulnerable and ‘difficult to reach’ communities. An excellent example of this has been the highly successful Cambridge English programme run within Kachin State.
The planning was carefully nurtured over a number of years, building relationships with partners in a highly sensitive area. While there were many obstacles to overcome, the six-month programme was completed successfully with excellent results. For all the students of this programme, this offered the very first opportunity to achieve an internationally recognised qualification.
Rob Gordon,involved with MEP for a number of years in many capacities, with his successful group of Kachin students, having achieved their Cambridge certificates.
