Advancing the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God.
Kelly Ng
The $45 million diversity-focused program has so far provided 400 Burmese students—including Christian ethnic minorities—a chance to study away from conflict.
Mang Tha Par had just left war-stricken Myanmar and was still getting used to life in Thailand last December when tensions arose between her and her family members back home. Emotional distress prompted her to seek counseling.
Weeks later, she received an email alerting her that United States authorities had terminated the scholarship program that had allowed her to further her studies at Chiang Mai University.
“The news devastated me,” the 27-year-old said. “My problems came one after another. I couldn’t study and yet felt burned-out and just laid on my bed for a week.”
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Mang Tha Par, a Christian from Chin State, said she had been pursuing master’s degrees in social science and development at Chiang Mai University so that she could help develop her rural hometown in Hakha, the capital of the beleaguered Chin State. Before moving to Chiang Mai last October, she started a library and hosted an English class at her home for children in her community, as access to education had been hobbled by the civil war.
Mang Tha Par was among 400 recipients of education grants from the Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program (DISP) funded by USAID, the US agency overseeing humanitarian aid to foreign countries since the 1960s. The program set aside $45 million in scholarships to students from Myanmar, providing young people refuge and educational opportunities as their country spiraled into civil war after the 2021 military coup. Many students and instructors participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the military junta refuse to take part in the military-controlled public schools, leaving education options severely limited.
Yet in late January, the Trump administration cut DISP, describing it as wasteful and not aligned with national interests. In a post in X, the Department of Government Efficiency noted it had canceled “$45 million in DEI scholarships in Burma.”
Scholarship holders received vaguely worded emails in the end of January that said USAID “exercised its right to terminate” the program. DISP’s website and Facebook page have since gone offline, and program officials did not respond to CT’s request for comment.
Launched in August 2023, DISP offered Burmese students, particularly those from vulnerable communities, opportunities to study at universities in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as well as take online courses from the University of Arizona.
The marginalized populations include ethnic and religious minorities—many of whom are Christian or Muslim in the Buddhist-majority country—as well as women, people with disabilities, people who identify as LGBTQ, and people who are displaced. Currently, the fighting has killed more than 6,000 civilians and internally displaced 3.5 million people.
Mang Tha Par is among five DISP scholarship holders in her program and is in the second of four semesters. Without the scholarship, she said she would not be able to continue her studies. She noted that the funding freeze has challenged her Christian faith.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “God gave me this chance [to study]. And then the chance is gone, just like that. Sometimes I ask him, ‘Why did you let me face such a situation?’”
Hung Ling, another Chin student who received the DISP scholarship, took part in CDM in the early days of the coup but later fled across Myanmar’s border with India in 2022 when he witnessed peers getting rounded up by the junta.
“I stood up against the military because they disrespected our democracy,” the 30-year-old Christian said, referring to the junta’s deposition of the country’s democratically elected government in 2021. “But the persecution got so intense I fled.”
He graduated with a bachelor’s in theology from Mizoram Bible College before applying for the DISP scholarship. With USAID funding, he enrolled in a business administration program at the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India in Aizawl, Mizoram, last year. He said he had hoped to return to his hometown in Chin State after he graduated to work in community development promoting education and business.
“It will be impossible for me to continue pursuing the MBA without the funding,” said Hung Ling, the youngest of eight siblings. “But I know that God is good all the time. The Lord wants me to draw close and trust him throughout this cutting of scholarship funds.”
The US-based nonprofit Institute of Chin Affairs (ICA) is seeking funding on his behalf for the final two years of his MBA program. If they can’t raise the money, Hung Ling plans to remain in India and find work to fund his studies.
Eventually, he hopes to return to Myanmar “when peace is restored,” he said.
Mang Tha Par said her family has also asked her to stay put in Thailand for now. Her family fears that, like many men and women her age, she would be forced to fight for the military regime if she were to return home. Last year, the junta announced mandatory conscription for men under 35 and women under 27.
Meanwhile, Mang Tha Par’s classmate, who asked not to be named due to fears for her safety if she returns to Myanmar, said the scholarship was her “lifeline.”
“In Myanmar, we cannot learn safely,” said the 28-year-old from Sagaing, a region in central Myanmar. “Many young people who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement to fight for the future of our country fled when the junta hit back. Many have gotten injured or killed.”
The student noted that the termination of the scholarship program had caught her off guard. She and other affected students have been looking for other funding opportunities, but they are not optimistic.
“We really want to complete our studies. There is just one more year,” she said.
Growing up in a rural, agrarian community, the student, who is Buddhist, attended a monastic college in Mandalay, Myanmar, for her undergraduate degree. She longed to experience the vibrant campus life she had read about in books.
“I was determined to study overseas and have worked so hard for the opportunity,” she said. “My admission to Chiang Mai University has been big for my village in Sagaing.”
Yale academic David Moe, who was born in Chin State, said DISP “filled a vacuum in Myanmar’s education space.”
He noted that studying overseas helps Burmese students “gain a critical perspective,” as students in Myanmar usually aren’t allowed to ask questions or challenge their teachers in the classroom. The loss of the scholarships is a blow to the future generation of Burmese leaders given the country’s current state.
“$45 million is a lot of money for Myanmar,” Moe said. “[The Burmese community] see it as an investment in the country’s democracy.”
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