There’s a traditional saying in Myanmar that goes “treat your husband as a God and treat your son as a boss”.
Win May Htway knows it well. As a young girl in Myanmar, this phrase summed up what was expected of her and how she should act.
Win May, however, had different plans.
“I have always seen myself as a person not guided much by traditional norms,” she says.
Win May has made a career out of defying the expectations in a country that has tried to put limits on what she should hope to achieve.
She is one of three local women who have risen to the role of Country Director in the six national offices that ChildFund Australia manages.
Inspired by the line “the child is father of the man” from a William Wordsworth poem she read in school, Win May has dedicated her life to promoting equality and opportunities in Myanmar.
“The social and cultural norms that affect girls still persist in our society,” she says. “Gender should not be a barrier for girls to have the same opportunities as boys to develop to full potential,” she says.
“Not just in Myanmar but everywhere; every child and youth must have the same rights and opportunities to grow to their potential because everyone is a human being, a person, regardless of their gender.”
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For ChildFund Laos’ Blonglee Kouchongtoua, being a Global Community officer means going beyond the duties in his job description.
This includes sacrificing his free time a few nights a week so he can run workshops with ChildFund volunteers who want to learn important skills to help their communities.
“Sometimes I am tired from the journey and working until late at night, but I never want to stop,” Blonglee says.
“On the contrary, it inspires me to study and search for new knowledge to pass on so I can encourage these local children to gain abilities to use in their daily lives.”
“I’m so happy that I have passed my knowledge on to local children.”
Blonglee is based in ChildFund’s office in Nonghet, a remote area surrounded by mountains in the northeast of Laos, close to the border with Vietnam.
About 65 per cent of the population in Nonghet are Hmong people, one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups in Laos.
Villages in Nonghet are still affected by high unexploded ordnance contamination, as a result of the Vietnam war. This has left families in fear, and makes it extremely difficult to farm and build in new areas.
