Phaung Daw Oo Monastic, Primary and Secondary School in Mandalay was founded in 1993 by Sayadaw U Nayaka in the resettlement area of Mandalay in Myanmar, which is a growing city of tremendous needs due to the increasing number of immigrant families.

Children from such families do not have access to basic education due to the costs of state education. To address this problem, we established the school to give free access to a basic education program for disadvantaged children. Because no payment is required from the parents for this school, the enrollment rate is rising fast yearly.

Most of the Phaung Daw Oo children are the children of poor parents from rural and urban areas. Some children are from ethnic minority families living in remote economically deprived areas such as Chin, Kayar, Kayin, Palaung, Wa, Lahu and Shan. PDO has also been able to help children displaced by natural disasters.

Sayadaw U Nayaka with some of the children displaced by Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis in May 2008, housed in PDO.

The keys to the success of PDO is the charismatic personality of the school principal Sayadaw U Nayaka who has pioneered modern education methods in Myanmar focusing on Child Centered learning and the principle of “critical” thinking

This is the longest running TCF project that started back in 2001 where TCF funded the annual running costs, built a three-storey school building and furnished it. TCF has also over the years built and supported the running of a medical clinic and have sought to provide PDO with equipment and supplies to help PDO establish a sustainable source of income.