Wai Wai Nu
Empowering young people and women from marginalized communities through programming that builds peace and mutual understanding among diverse groups in Myanmar.
Wai Wai Nu emerged from seven years as a political prisoner to become a human rights advocate and the founder of two organizations: the Women Peace Network and the Yangon Youth Center. Through the Women Peace Network, Wai Wai works to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s ethnic communities and to empower marginalized women throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State, to advocate for their rights. Her work also aims to reduce discrimination and hatred among Buddhist and Muslim communities and to improve the human rights of the Rohingya people. To engage youth in the peacebuilding process, Wai Wai also founded the Yangon Youth Center - a space where young people from diverse backgrounds come together to learn, share, and explore ideas and to promote leadership in social, political, and peace-building policy making. Previously, Wai Wai worked for Justice for Women in Yangon, a legal and advocacy organization that worked with victims of gender based violence. Wai Wai received her bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Yangon in Myanmar and her master’s degree in law from the University of Berkeley. In 2018, Wai Wai was selected as a World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader. In the spring of 2019, she served as a visiting scholar with the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women. Wai Wai was also a Draper Hills Summer Fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.
Biography current as of 2019-2020 program year