In a recent survey of three townships, Save the Children discovered that 85 percent of households have taken out a loan from a local moneylender. She is not the only one to be crippled by high interest loans in Yangon. Mosquitoes, which carry a deadly strain of Dengue fever, breed in the water The stagnant ditch in Seikkyi Khanaungdho township where Than Than Htwe built her house. She stands on the street and shouts ‘I didn’t give you that money for free’ and other horrible things,” says Than Than Htwe. A year later and she has paid her sister far more than the original sum through these daily interest payments, but the debt still stands. With her husband out of work, she had to borrow 40,000 kyat (roughly $30) from her sister.Įvery day that Than Than Htwe fails to repay the full amount, she must give her sister 2,000 kyat ($1.48) in interest. Than Than Htwe has struggled to support the household since her grandchildren moved in last year. They pawned it for cash earlier this year. But they no longer have to worry about the television getting wet in monsoon season. She shares the one-room house with eight members of her family and a scourge of deadly mosquitoes that fester in the thick, green water beneath her feet.Ī television used to decorate one corner of the house, balanced on a shelf to avoid the floodwater and sewage that seeped in through the floorboards while seasonal rain thrashed the hand-built structure from above. Three rows of wooden stilts elevate Than Than Htwe’s house above a stagnant pond in Seikkyi Khanaungdho township, an island that lies at the convergence of the Yangon river and Twante canal in Myanmar’s largest city. Than Than Htwe with her 14-year-old daughter and two of the grandchildren she cares for each day
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March 2023
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