Kyi Kyi Seinn
She/her
Myanmar
Founder of Moving Forward Together
Profile
Kyi Kyi Seinn had six years of work experience before pursuing her master’s degree. She worked various jobs such as being a tour guide and selling perfumes and lingerie. However, after learning about the human trafficking issue in Myanmar, Kyi Kyi said she felt a sense of embarrassment. She realised that one bottle of perfume that she would sell was sometimes worth five times more than what some people were trafficked for. This was a turning point in her life. Kyi Kyi decided to switch gears and dedicate her attention to the field of peacebuilding. She started working on combating human trafficking issues, later also pursuing a Master’s degree in Business Administration. After studying International Peace Studies, joining the United Nations Development Program and Save the Children, and working as a national consultant, she established the local NGO Moving Forward Together. This NGO works on youth empowerment in income-generation programmes. Moving Forward Together finds its strength in its local character. According to Kyi Kyi, working on a small scale enables you to see the gaps and niche areas that international NGOs and UN agencies tend to neglect. Therefore, Kyi Kyi said she is a fierce believer in listening to the community and providing what is needed on the ground.
Story
As Kyi Kyi Seinn worked with at international NGOs and UN agencies, she noticed a gap and realised the necessity of small NGOs. According to her, ‘small is beautiful’, because small NGOs can see the niche areas that bigger organisations tend to overlook. Additionally, a local NGO can find ways to better utilise the resources available within a community. She said that a downside of working on a small scale is that Moving Forward Together lacks large funding to work with. Therefore, Kyi Kyi had a full-time job alongside her NGO work, in order to finance the NGO partly out of her own pocket. Consequently, she found herself not being able to fully commit to Moving Forward Together. She said this was draining at times, but Kyi Kyi’s sense of responsibility and her belief in youth empowerment, self-motivation, and self-empowerment motivated her to continue her work. Kyi Kyi emphasises the importance of NGOs being able to sustain themselves rather than being donor-driven. Independence can especially enable smaller organisations to find a long-term vision, instead of working from funding to funding and project to project.
Funding is just one of the challenges Kyi Kyi faced along the way. She said she also struggled with Myanmar’s political situation, which not only made it difficult for parties and donors to visit, but also complicated the monitoring and evaluation of the organisation. Another issue that arose was differing views between the local population, international partners, Kyi Kyi herself, and her colleagues. Since Moving Forward Together operates based on the needs of the community, it is natural for differences in the understanding of a problem to arise. Kyi Kyi said that this is due to ‘different indicators of success’, which can complicate the productivity of the NGO.
Kyi Kyi said that youth empowerment requires shifting from a project-based structure driven by large NGOs to one that asks communities what they require, and what steps are necessary. At the beginning of a project, Kyi Kyi first sits down with the people and, based on their contributions, develops a project proposal. She strongly believes that it is vital to trust and listen to the local communities.
Kyi Kyi said she views Myanmar as a country with an absence of peace, mutual respect, social harmony, and coexistence. Myanmar copes with an identity conflict as a legacy of British colonisation. Consequently, Kyi Kyi chooses not to focus on her own ethnic area. She said, ‘We will never be able to promote the nation-building in our country,’ if everyone only fights for their own identity group. She said that in order to create peace in a fragmented society like Myanmar, it is crucial to understand each other’s pain. The name of Kyi Kyi’s NGO conveys this message – instead of dramatizing an issue, overcoming it is the best way forward. That is her goal.
Moving Forward Together website: https://mftmyanmar.org/
