Htoo Foundation is a foundation in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma) founded by Burmese business tycoon

Tay Za Tay Za (; my, တေဇ, ; also spelled Tayza or Teza; born 18 July 1964) is a Burmese business tycoon and the Chairman of Htoo Group of Companies, Myanmar. He is a close associate of the country's former head of state, Than Shwe. He is the first ...

History

Htoo Foundation is founded on 5 May 2008 after

cyclone Nargis Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis ( my, နာဂစ်, ur, نرگس ) was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The cyclone m ...

, the tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in Myanmar. The stated objectives of the foundation are "enhancing the living standards of national races living in remote areas, preservation of culture, tradition and dialect of national races living in remote area, to offer emergency relief assistance in areas affected by natural hazard within Myanmar, Preservation and reforestation of natural forests of Myanmar and preservation and protection of exotic wildfire species in their natural habitat."

Financials

Founding background source coming from the

Htoo Group of Companies The Htoo Group of Companies (HGC) is a Burmese holding company, with headquarters at 5 Pyay Road, Hlaing Township, Yangon, Myanmar. HGC is the parent company of Air Bagan, a privately held Burmese airline company. The company has several subsidi ...

. The main key strongly supporter for Htoo Foundation is

Air Bagan Air Bagan Limited ( my, အဲပုဂံ) was an airline headquartered in Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar. It operated domestic scheduled services within Myanmar, as well as to Thailand. Its main bases were Yangon International Airport and Mand ...

Asia Green Development Bank Asia Green Development Bank ( my, အာရှစိမ်းလန်းမှုဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးဘဏ်; abbreviated AGD Bank) is a public commercial bank in Burma (Myanmar) providing banking services and products. It was on ...

, Aureum Palace Hotels & Resorts, Myanmar Treasure Hotels & Resorts. The foundation chairperson Tay Za began his career in the 1980s and started Htoo Group in the early 1990s to extract

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

from Burma's forests.

Activities

Htoo Foundation is participating in humanitarian work such as providing help in the promotion of for major sectors to develop for future of Myanmar. The four sectors are

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

Health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

and Regional development in remote areas of the country.

Health Sector

Htoo Foundation has built a hospital, a dispensary and provided medical assistance and to villages across Putao,

Kachin State Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet and Yunnan, specifically and respectively); Sh ...

. Htoo Foundation also provided medical equipments to

Bogalay Bogale ( my, ဘိုကလေးမြို့ ; also spelled Bogalay) is a small city located in the Bogale Township, Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located on the south-western part of Myanmar/Burma on the mainland section of ...

Hospital in

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( my, ဧရာဝတီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division), is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is bor ...

Education

Htoo Foundation established vocational schools in remote areas at

and

Chin State Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...

, donated schools and accessories in

Mon State Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to the ...

and

. The foundation started scholarship program in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

Arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

subjects at abroad. Another scholarship programme is to attend the Pilot training courses by Myanmar Aviation Academy.

Peace Process

Foundation was also assisted in peace process by donating rice bags, tube wells, and cash to IDP camps of

Preservation and Protection

Htoo Foundation provide with financial assistance and skilled technicians for curbing environmental damage and

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A debate ...

Mandalay Region Mandalay Region ( my, မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Mandalay Division) is an administrative divisions of Myanmar, administrative division of Myanmar. It is located in the center of the country, bordering ...

and

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

. The foundation established a butterfly museum and

petrified wood Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of ''fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ''P ...

museum.

Controversy

The foundation's parent Htoo Group of Companies has been involved in massive timber extraction projects and continuously seeking extensive logging contracts from Myanmar government. According to ''

The Irrawaddy ''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. From its inception, ''The Irrawaddy'' has taken an independent stance on Burmese politics. As a publication pr ...

'', in Kachin State alone, Tay Za has been granted a 100,000-acre (40,000 hectare) logging concession by the government that would allow him to cut down vast swathes of valuable, pristine teak forest. In 2006–2007, Htoo Trading, a division of Htoo Holdings involved in

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

log exports, was Burma's top private exporter and fifth largest overall, with gross revenues of $65.1 million. In 2014, the Foundation won the ''2014 National Best Social Welfare Team'' award though its parent company pays substantially low taxes.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Organizations established in 2008 Medical and health foundations 2008 establishments in Myanmar Medical and health organisations based in Myanmar