Image Credit: U Thant House Facebook Page
U Thant House is a leading centre for learning and dialogue in Yangon, focused on the key challenges facing Myanmar today.
At this critical time in the country’s political, economic, social, and environmental history, U Thant House aims to help the people of Myanmar reimagine peace and rethink development.
Inspired by the life and work of U Thant, the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, and situated at his former residence in Yangon, programmes at U Thant House are centred around the issues that were most important to him: peace, human dignity, sustainable development, education, and protecting the environment.
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U Thant House welcomes over 5,000 museum visitors per year, 75% of whom are from Myanmar.
We consider the museum first and foremost a service to community; offering an opportunity to learn not only about a historic person but also an important part of global history, as well as to reflect on the values U Thant worked to promote such a peace, tolerance and the safeguarding of the environment.
We believe museums have an important role to fill in society as a place for learning and can serve as a complement to formal education institutions, regardless of a visitor’s age or prior training.
This opportunity to facilitate learning using modern pedagogic methodologies to engage (and change) visitors is perhaps particularly important in an ethnically diverse country like Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of dictatorship and isolation with the overarching challenge of transitioning to a peaceful, inclusive, and globally re-connected society.
In addition to the museum and exhibition open to the public, an education programme was launched in September 2018 using specially crafted interactive materials to foster new thinking on history, peace, reconciliation, and development in Myanmar with the aim of stimulating the next generation to think imaginatively about their future, country, and role in the global community.
In the pilot phase alone, we have been able to serve 2,000 students.
With the Ministry of Education’s recent addition of U Thant studies to the national curricula we expect to see an even higher demand on our offerings in the coming year and plan to use the opportunity to ensure that the studies on U Thant make a meaningful contribution to peace in this country, by inspiring children to reflect on peace, and what it means in terms of upholding human dignity, challenging prejudice and building tolerance, promoting nonviolence and caring for the earth.
We consider the museum first and foremost a service to community; offering an opportunity to learn not only about a historic person but also an important part of global history, as well as to reflect on the values U Thant worked to promote such a peace, tolerance and the safeguarding of the environment.
We believe museums have an important role to fill in society as a place for learning and can serve as a complement to formal education institutions, regardless of a visitor’s age or prior training.
This opportunity to facilitate learning using modern pedagogic methodologies to engage (and change) visitors is perhaps particularly important in an ethnically diverse country like Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of dictatorship and isolation with the overarching challenge of transitioning to a peaceful, inclusive, and globally re-connected society.
In addition to the museum and exhibition open to the public, an education programme was launched in September 2018 using specially crafted interactive materials to foster new thinking on history, peace, reconciliation, and development in Myanmar with the aim of stimulating the next generation to think imaginatively about their future, country, and role in the global community.
In the pilot phase alone, we have been able to serve 2,000 students.
With the Ministry of Education’s recent addition of U Thant studies to the national curricula we expect to see an even higher demand on our offerings in the coming year and plan to use the opportunity to ensure that the studies on U Thant make a meaningful contribution to peace in this country, by inspiring children to reflect on peace, and what it means in terms of upholding human dignity, challenging prejudice and building tolerance, promoting nonviolence and caring for the earth.
