Even the locals don't recognise Yangon's back alleys after this makeover

Spend enough time in Yangon, and you start to realise it has a weird, warped kind of beauty. Grand, dilapidated colonial architecture, combined with a scuzzy dirt-under-the-nails grittiness, gives the city a strange intangible charm that sets it apart from its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The back alleys, on the other hand, are a different story. Trash-strewn, rat-infested, grotty no-go zones left for dead by the city. That is, until a few years ago, when Doh-Eain stepped in. Originally conceived as a small-scale restoration project, the organisation - in addition to important heritage work - has expanded its remit to cleaning up the back streets of Yangon, to make it, in founder Emilie Roell’s words: “a more pleasant place to live. We want to design spaces that can be used and enjoyed by everyone.”