Jean Dickason (back right) with Cetana Educational Foundation scholars at an Asian Institute of Technology graduation ceremony in May 2005.
However, Elizabeth Jeanette (Jean) Dickason, a philanthropist who passed away on August 4 in the United States, is one who I can call a real Burmese at heart.
This is not because she was born in Mawlamyine, on February 7, 1933, but because of her passion for this country, which led her to establish and run the Cetana Educational Foundation.
She was American and could only speak English, but she always smiled in a Burmese way: Whenever she smiled, it was noticeable to many Myanmar that she was born here. Perhaps this was her heart’s way of giving us this message.
Jean lived most of her first 10 years in Myanmar. She, along with the rest of her family, was a refugee of the Japanese invasion of Myanmar during WWII, escaping first to India and later to the US.
Jean returned with her family to Myanmar as a teenager. After contracting polio during a worldwide epidemic after the war, she was treated at a medical complex in Vellore, south India, and completed her secondary schooling at the nearby Kodaikanal International School.
Jean entered the College of Wooster Ohio and transferred to Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, completing her bachelor of arts and registered nurse degrees. She served as a member of the Nurses Christian Fellowship for more than five years, counselling trainee nurses in seven US states. She also served as a volunteer nurse in a civilian hospital in South Vietnam during the war there. Jean was a nursing educator at Queensborough Community College until her retirement in 1998. She was a progressive educator and edited or published seven books on nursing education. One of these, on maternal and child care, became a reference standard and has been translated into six languages.
However, it was in retirement that Jean discovered the great passion of her life, to which she gave unremitting effort. In 1992 she founded the Cetana Educational Foundation to produce future leaders for Myanmar’s development through the provision of educational opportunities to young people.
Cetana, a Myanmar term derived from Pali meaning “giving without thought of recompense”, was Jean’s philosophy, and she was also a visionary in terms of her leadership.
The foundation has so far produced nearly 100 Myanmar scholars, educated in the United States and Thailand, who are working inside the country. But Jean also led several literacy projects, including the development of two tri-lingual graphical dictionaries (Kachin-English-Myanmar and Kayin-English-Myanmar), which have been widely distributed to ethnic minority groups in Myanmar, Thailand and the US. She helped establish low-cost English language learning centres to improve opportunities for young people and create jobs for teachers. Another of her programs resulted in books being provided to Myanmar libraries with support from the Sabre Foundation.
As a Cetana scholar, I had several wonderful conversations with Jean at her home in New York. She loved talking and hearing about Myanmar, a subject that was guaranteed to elicit one of her Myanmar smiles. To us she was also a real Myanmar historian thanks to her colonial experiences; rather than talk about our own country, we would happily listen to her discuss Myanmar history.
Many considered her their mum, as her house regularly hosted Myanmar students, especially in summer. We all named her the “second JS Furnivall” of Myanmar: one who made a great contribution to Myanmar society through the creation of educational opportunities.
Jean’s passing is a sad moment for Cetana as well as the country. Though she’s gone, her contributions will live on forever in Myanmar, where she will always be known as “a real Burmese”.
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