On January 18th, 2017, The International Republican Institute (IRI), in partnership with U.S. Embassy Bangkok organized the second of six sessions of “Young Women Lead!” (YWL!). YWL! is a program created to bring together promising Thai young women to participate in interactive workshops that explore the themes of women’s civic engagement and economic empowerment in Thailand.
The second session featured two amazing speakers: Olympics skeet shooter Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit and boxing promoter Pariyakorn Ratanasuban.
The next session will be a panel discussion with the female Ambassadors to Thailand from Canada and Bangladesh, along with the Ministry of Commerce Perm Sec of Thailand, and will be hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, Glyn T. Davies.
“My tribal name is Amema Saeju, but people call me Mimi. I belong to the Lisu ethnic group. I was born and raised in a Lisu village called Doi Laan, located in Chiang Rai province, the northern part of Thailand. When I was 16, I lived with my foster parents in Chiang Mai. My foster father was an American historian, Michael Vickery, and my foster mom is a Dutch anthropologist who studied the Lisu in my village in 1980. I continued my studies while staying with my foster parents until I graduated with my master in Ethnicity and Development program at Chiang Mai University in 2014.
In 2014-2015, my foster parents’ health declined, especially my mom’s. While taking care of her, I looked through her teaching and research materials and found her notes with the names of people in my village. I also found old photographs of my villages and suddenly felt nostalgic.
I came up with an idea to create a space to exhibit my ethnic costumes. With the support of friends, I also employed Lisu construction workers to help build the center. Finally the “Lisu Cultural Heritage Center” officially opened in March 2016.
The space exhibited my Lisu mom and my foster mom’s Lisu costumes and other ethnic apparels and showcased Lisu livelihood photographs. People can learn about the culture, ethnicity and history of the Lisu. I occasionally shared with Thai and international students about northern ethnic groups, particularly on the Lisu. I also promoted Lisu authentic, ready-made handicrafts by Lisu women, including Lisu earrings and bags.
In 2016, I was selected as a YSEALI delegate to meet former President Barack Obama. He recognized my work on preserving the Lisu cultural heritage and for building the Lisu center. I felt very honored for this recognition. Through this honorable mention, more people became more aware of the Lisu center and attracted the Lisu people from Myanmar as well to come and see the center.
I’ve seen many kinds of human rights advocacy for the indigenous community advocating for their education, women, children, culture, land rights, etc, but there’s no protection for indigenous human rights defenders. Many have lost their lives in saving other people’s lives or helping develop their own community. Youths can be a great force to lead for a better change in our society, but they will always face a security risk. In my opinion, what youths can do to help support this issue is to have official dialogues and agreements with state or regional governments so youths can be fully secure and confident in doing their job!
My own journey through YSEALI really made an impact on me and my community. I used my experience and knowledge from traveling to the US by sharing with my community about Native Americans, the diverse culture in America and my exchange experience in Montana. Moreover, I now have a bigger network because of YSEALI. I hope to be involved with more youths, especially from the Lisu community.”
Amema Saeju (Mimi), Thailand 2016 YSEALI Professional Fellow
Mimi conducted research regarding the Lisu and continued working on archiving her foster parents’ teaching and research materials. Check out the research about Lisu folktales: www.molazu.org.
Real Money Real Youth is a project which will provide the people in Myanmar with much needed financial education and literacy skills by setting up a long-lasting, sustainable, and scalable e-learning platform. The project will offer free financial knowledge and resources to youth and communities in Myanmar. The project will teach them how to make their own financial plans and manage their expenses properly, such as to be able to buy their first cars, first homes and daily essentials. The project will be implemented by three phases - planning, training the trainers, and launching an e-learning platform website. The website can be accessed from any part of the world and the learners can also download materials and learn offline.
Why do you care about this specific topic/issue?
Due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and military coup, millions of people in Myanmar are effected by unemployment, resulting in a decline of capital income per person. There is an urgent need for the stakeholders to provide emergency funding. Also, people need financial counseling, especially for families to cope with the crisis and to help them manage their finances systematically and to rebuild their future. Due to the low-level education system on all fronts and limited resources in the country, financial literacy has yet not been effectively implemented and handled beyond policy-making. Much technological help and support are needed from private sectors and from international communities. Therefore, our project promises to contribute to the community by developing insight into the financial matters of the citizens, as well as providing the necessary financial knowledge that allows them to make proper decisions with their financial resources.
Why did you decide to start this project?
According to research and analysis, a lot of youth in Myanmar have surprising percentage of lack of knowledge and skills in basic financial literacy.
92% of the population is lacking financial literacy skills.
74% of the population has no financial account ownership.
Only 6% of adults are using more than one financial product/service.
That is why we are motivated and eager to create a Financial Education Program (through train-the-trainers), not only in physical classroom but also creating an e-learning platform which would be accessible to all young people, regardless of gender, race, religion, or their locations. Our project is dedicated to equipping youth with the essential knowledge and skill to manage money effectively and to avoid undesirable actions and decisions concerning savings and investments in their life.
What are your goals for this project?
Through the Real Money Real Youth Program, we can effectively alleviate the economic pressures and worries that youth are facing today and give great support and contribution towards the global goal of eradicating poverty. The Real Money Real Youth Project is one of our first new steps towards creating a Powerful Financial Education Platform that will empower the country’s 17 million young people.
How will YSEALI Seeds help you achieve your goals?
YSEALI plays a major role by supporting funding, mentoring, providing networks, and other amenities for our project to successfully implement creative innovations. Through the YSEALI network, we get inspired by youths who are making a change in their community and bringing a positive impact to the society.
What have you accomplished and implemented so far?
Due to the ongoing pandemic situation and political crisis in the country, our project is hindered in the progress, and we are now focusing on curriculum development and creating websites to provide e-learning platforms.
What are the most significant lessons learned you’ve experienced so far?
No matter how unfavorable the situations is (political and the pandemic situation) our team will dedicate ourselves to our goal and commit to bringing a positive perspective to the community.
