Be Now
An art and learning centre with a hotel, run by people with disabilities. In Myanmar.
The Idea
People with disabilities deserve the best opportunities, not the second best. So Be Now will not be a home on the edge of town. It will be a place of the highest quality, in the middle of life.
Be Now has two parts on one site. The art and learning centre is the heart. The hotel is a workplace, a training ground and a meeting place for guests from all over the world. Guests stay between studios, exhibitions and performances. A team made up mostly of people with disabilities welcomes them and looks after them.
The house is led by people with disabilities: trained professionals in hotel and cultural management. I am one of them.
What Happens There
The centre is for women and children with disabilities first. In Myanmar they are among the most disadvantaged, and the most at risk in a crisis. Men with disabilities are part of it too.
Painting
Studios, mentoring, and exhibitions in the hotel.
Writing
Writing workshops and publications.
Film
Film training, built on what we learned at the Tibetan film school.
Dance
A dance hall, lessons and performances.
Ceramics
A workshop with a kiln. The work is sold in the hotel.
School and work
Education, languages, hotel training and starting a business.
The Hotel
A four-star hotel with about 30 rooms. Fully accessible, from the rooms to the kitchen and the gardens.
At least 60 percent of the team are people with disabilities. Our goal is 100 percent, right up to management.
Art from the centre hangs in every room and is sold for the artists. Every cent of profit goes back into the centre.
We want it to be one of the best hotels in the country. Because of the quality and the service.
Why Myanmar
I have been to Myanmar many times. I have friends there and people I trust. I have held the talks for this project in person.
The situation in the country is hard. We are confident it will get better, but we plan step by step. Before we build, we decide again whether it is safe. If it is not, the money goes to a similar project elsewhere in the region.
We know how to do this. For years our foundation has brought help to places others don't reach: slums and remote villages in Vietnam.
The Plan
Start
Plan, set aside the first funds, travel to Myanmar.
Build up
First art and learning programmes with partners on the ground.
Site and house
Lease the land or buy a hotel. Build, train the team.
Opening
Centre and hotel open their doors.
We don't hide.
We show what we can do.