Su Pon Chit now has to travel four hours each day to get to university. PHOTO/FACEBOOK/ SU PON CHIT
A gifted student with severe physical disabilities says she was evicted from her government-owned apartment after taking part in education reform protests.
Su Pon Chit, who was born with congenital defects and has no arms but learned to write with her feet, said she has been forced to move back home and endure a four-hour daily round trip commute to Yangon Technological University, where she is working on her doctorate.
The student said she received two letters from the Yangon Region Social Welfare Department, in December and February, asking her to leave before March 31, in the middle of exams, so that the Bahan Township apartment could house civil servants.
In an interview with Coconuts Yangon, she attributed the sudden move to her involvement in ongoing student protests. “Because I got the second letter … after I was involved in the protest in February,” she said.
Su Pon Chit was one of thousands of students who took part in protests against an education bill passed late last year which banned student unions. Many amendments favorable to the protesters were approved by lawmakers last week after dozens of students were rounded up in violent crackdowns.
The 25-year-old said the two-bedroom apartment had been promised to her for life after she was named ‘Student of the Decade’ in 2004. After finishing school, she completed an undergraduate degree in Yangon and a Masters in Policy Studies at Sydney University.
Tin Zaw Moe, head of Yangon Region Social Welfare Department, told Eleven Media that the government only intended her to stay in the apartment until she finished her studies.
“She was allowed to live in the flat until she completed her studies so that she as a disabled person could live comfortably,” he said. “Now, the flat has been taken back because she finished her degree.”
But Su Pon Chit, who has moved to her home town 34 miles outside of Yangon, said she has another year of postgraduate course work to go, and then another to complete her thesis. Every day she has to travel two hours each way on the bus. “I have to take the bus at 5.30am. I have no time to study,” she said.
