Abstract

Locally Led Development: Phaung Daw Oo (PDO) and its Vision of Burma.

Burma is infamous in the international media for its on-going human rights crises, censorship, and totalitarian government structures often likened with Orwellian 1984. However, despite such characterizations in the international media, everyday life in Burma, just like any other place in the world, persists. This talk brings together two individuals, a Burmese and an American, who work with Phaung Daw Oo School of Mandalay, a locally led and directed Burmese initiative that is trying amend numerous social wrongs through the promotion of education, inquiry, tolerance, and community empowerment. The talk will bring you an insider’s peak into the lives and livelihood of average citizens in this isolated polity, and how citizens have adopted unique self-empowering projects in an effort to bring change.