IMPACT HERO 2019

WAI WAI NU
Final Report1

IMPACT HERO 2019

WAI WAI NUFounder, Women’s Peace Network
Human Rights Activist

Wai Wai, is a human rights activist, with Rohingya ethnicity.
Through her NGO, Women’s Peace Network, she advocates
for and educates the next generation leaders to build
inclusive futures in Myanmar. Her institution promotes
inclusion, trust, and peace through the following main
initiatives:●

Human Rights Advocacy●Youth Development●Peace Building●Refugee Support in Bangladesh2

Founder’s Message

What a 5 years it has been.
I ﬁrst heard Wai Wai speak back in 2017, and without
second thoughts, I reached out to her andencouraged her to apply for our Impact Hero award.
Alas, with the Rohingya genocide turning one million
people into refugees that year, she was unable toapply.
Wai Wai eventually became our Impact Hero in 2019.
Our support for her primarily focused on ensuring
the sustainability of her organization's activities.
By delivering educational programs to youths ofdiverse ethinic backgrounds, she aimed to bring
forth inclusive futures in Myanmar.
Sadly, those attempts turned to despair in 2021.

After the military coup began in February, citizens ofMyanmar were stripped of their rights and freedom.
The situation was dire, but they did not succumb to it- especially Wai Wai!
She used every ounce of her ability to raise her voice,
to represent in the international arena those ofmillions in her country. Following the coup, wemoved quickly to shift our support to funding her
advocacy work.
Advocacy work is hard. Results could only show after
decades of work, and even then, the work still mightnot receive the recognition it deserves. Not many
pays them to be activists.

In private life, Wai Wai is just like every other girl wholoves manicures. But when it comes to advocacy, she
is a ﬁerce warrior, with so much guts and tenacity
but also with elegance and intelligence to logicallynavigate through sensitive political matters.
It was our proud privilege to have been able tosupport such a brilliant changemaker, to deliver withyou the necessary support at the right time, and toslowly witness change happening overtime. There isstill a long way to go. So please do continue to follow
and support Wai Wai’s journey.
With love, respect and gratitude,
Aska Hamakawa, CEO, Earth Company

Eart Company’s Sup ort
over Three ears..

119,102 USD.
from445 donors..
used to support:

1. Operating expenses tomobilize youth
development programs

45,940USD

2. Advocacy activities
during the military coupin Myanmar

60,050USD

3. Support for theestablishment of a neworganization

5,568
USD

From the donations, approximately 7,500 USD was incurredby Earth Company as the support’s operating expenses...

1.

Operational expenses to mobilize youth development programs

The Yangon Youth Leadership Center or YYLC, is the youth development arm of the
Women’s Peace Network. YYLC gathers women and young people from diverse
backgrounds to learn, share, and explore their ideas and promote leadership in social,political, and peace-building.
As YYLC faced ﬁnancial difﬁculties. Earth Company launched a crowdfunding campaign inJune 2019, for which 96 people donated, and a total of 46K USD went to support YYLC
operations.
Although YYLC was forced to cease its activities after the coup, their alumni are stillleading the democracy movement, including activists who are now in leadership positionsin the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG).

42.

Advocacy activities during the military coup in Myanmar

3.

Establishment of a new organization

Immediately after the military coup broke out in February 2021, from March toApril, we conducted a crowdfunding campaign to support Wai Wai's advocacy
work. We were able to secure donations of 32K USD from 317 donors. Combinedwith corporate donations, the ﬁnal donation totaled 60K USD.

In 2012, Wai Wai established the Women's Peace Network which has mainly been
operating through overseas grants. But when she moved to the U.S – for security
reasons – she was no longer eligible for grants, and raising funds to sustain
activities became a major challenge.

This enabled Wai Wai to continue her advocacy work to the UN and otherinternational organizations as well as foreign dignitaries around the world while
urging International Community to act through major global media outlets.

In light of this situation, we supported the organization's preparations toregister as a non-proﬁt organization in the U.S. which will expand its
fundraising possibilities in the region where she is now based and has anextensive network. In July 2020, we held an online bootcamp to verbalize theorganization's vision and mission and organize the positioning of its projects.
Additionally, we also facilitated consultations to help her new organizations
establish its brand identity.

Simultaneously, Wai Wai supported the democracy movement from outside thecountry by providing advice and support through social networking services toyoung people participating in the peaceful protests in Myanmar.

5Impact Hero 2019: Our Journey Together
Press Conference at theJapan Press Club

Bali Kick-off Meeting

Marketing Support

Bootcamp to discuss mission
and vision for the new U.S.
organization and to provide
branding support.

Held a press conference during her
visit to Japan on the issues
surrounding Rohingya refugees atthe Japan Press Club. The article waslater published in several media.

019
ry 2auJanJun

91e 20

Oc

er 2
tob

019

e
Dec

ermb

9201

Febry
rua

Emergency Fundraising forAdvocacy Work for Myanmar

Fundraising to support Wai Wai’s
advocacy work in the wake of the coup,
which totaled 60K USD through a
combination of crowdfunding andcorporate donations.

0021

202

ry 2ruaFeb

Fundraising Support
for Operation of YYLCBusiness Development Consultingin Thailand

Raised 46K USD to support
YYLC's operating expenses.

Discussed strategies for future organizational
development including ﬁnancial projections,organizational structure, as well as ﬁnancial
projections and fundraising plans.

eDec

ermb

1202

Wai Wai’s Three-Year Summary of Advocacy Work
Advocacy Work for theInternational Community

Wai Wai’s advocacy work includes a lot of speaking,writing and campaigning; but, there is many otherimportant work that doesn’t always get the spotlight.
Everyday, Wai Wai spends a lot of time providing
information and exchanging opinions with policy
makers in international organizations and Westerngovernments to effect the dialogue around the issue.
In March 2022, the U.S. government recognizing thegenocide of the Rohingya persecution was a major
step forward made possible by Wai Wai and her fellow
activists working together to lobby the U.S. President
Biden and former President Barack Obama.

Media Coverage

41

Articles, writings,and citations

International Awards
Over the past three years, Wai Wai's work as ahuman rights activist has received internationalrecognition and numerous awards. Among others:

After the coup, Wai Wai has spoken atnumerous media events in more than 20countries, to urge international communities
to take action on the current situation inMyanmar. In addition, columns published inprominent diplomatic journals were widely
shared among UN and government ofﬁcials
as well as prominent human rights activists
around the world.

Some of the publishing media:★

Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2021★

International Religious Freedom
Summit 2021 Youth Leadership Award★

Athens Democracy Award 2021★

DVF Award 2021

Summary of Wai Wai's Three-Year Bottom-Up Activities
Youth Empowerment and Democracy Movement
Although the YYLC program itself had
to be suspended after the coup, thenumber of followers on Wai Wai's
social media accounts increased morethan tenfold.
As a young female leader of Rohingya
origin, she supports young people
involved in the democracy movement
on social networking platforms andcontinues to expand her inﬂuence as
their role model.
As the only educational institution in Myanmarthat provides young people of different ethnic
groups with opportunities to learn about humanrights, democracy, and peacebuilding, YYLC has
produced many next-generation leaders since its
establishment.
The YYLC has been supporting the current
democratization movement by reaching an evenwider audience, including Rohingya refugee
youth both inside and outside of Myanmar.

Wai Wai'ssocial media followers:

52,000110,000

Selected by TIME Magazine!
Ei Thinzar Maung, a female activist who was selected as one of TIME
Magazine's "100 Most Inﬂuential People" in 2021, is a graduate ofYYLC!
Originally from the Shan ethnic minority, Ei studied democracy andpeacebuilding in YYLC's civic and political education program as astudent.
She became the youngest ever deputy minister in the National Unity
Government (NUG) established by the pro-democracy government,
and has been an active voice for Myanmar’s ethnic minorities,
women, and youth.

Messa e From Wai ai

I would like to once again express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who
donated to help us and the Earth Company team for their support of me,
our activities, and our friends in Myanmar over the past three years.
What I realize now is that I was right to have always believed in thepotential of young people to create a new inclusive society. Seeing how
young people who had prejudice and discriminatory attitudes change as
they interact with people from diverse backgrounds and be exposed to
new values always empowers me and gives me the motivation to continue
the work that I do for their inclusive futures.
It is never easy to inﬂuence the international community. Yet, after years ofadvocacy work, and with your support, I am now conﬁdent change ispossible. In order to realize the future we are striving for, we must not giveup even when it seems impossible. We must keep going even when thechange seems so small - because one day, the seeds could ﬂower.
We hope that you will continue to support our activities for the people of
Myanmar, who still live without decent human rights.

~ Wai Wai Nu9Future C al engesSince the military coup in Myanmar, Wai Wai's work evolved
signiﬁcantly. As a human rights and peace activist of Rohingya
origin, Wai Wai's inﬂuence in the international community isgrowing and the scope of her work expanding.
With the situation in Myanmar being still unstable, theresponsibilities Wai Wai carries on a daily basis – ensuring thesafety of her family and running an organization in Myanmar
while internationally advocating for timely action – is too muchfor anyone to handle alone.
On the other hand, the world continues to face new challenges,
and the news coverage of the situations in Myanmar dropped
signiﬁcantly. All the while, the suffering of its people under theMyanmar military regime is not getting any better.
Obtaining funding for organizations in Myanmar is a constantchallenge. Without international support, continuation of themuch-needed work by Wai Wai and her team will be challenging.
Although the results of their work may not be immediately
visible, we appreciate your understanding of the importance ofher impactful work, and hope that you will continue to support
her going forward.
~ Earth Company TeamHow to support Wai Wai
1. Follow Wai Wai and Women’s Peace Network’s
activities on social media
Wai Wai(Burmese・English)
waiwainu
waiwainu
waiwainu

Women’s Peace Network(Burmese・English)
WomensPeaceNW
WPNmyanmar
womenspeacenetwork

2. Make a Donation
Crowdfunding to support womenin refugee camps (English)
https://helprohingya.raisely.com/
10

IMPACT HERO 2019
Wai Wai Nu
Final Report
Earth Company
September, 202211