KhinSandi Lwin: Empathy and Passion

    This past week I had the honor of attending the GIP Event about the Crisis in Myanmar featuring KhinSandi Lwin. The focus of this GIP Event was on Empathy and Passion and KhinSandi shared her heartfelt stories of how she turned her empathy into action. 

    To provide some background on the military crisis, as a result of years of military tension, the Tatmadaw, or military leaders of Myanmar, staged a coup in 1962. As a result, the Tatmadaw were allowed to retain military power indefinitely, which led to nationwide protests. The uprisings were crushed and the military continued to rule, taking over schools, hospitals, and daily life in Myanmar for 60 years. 

    Since KhinSandi saw the impact on Myanmar after fleeing the 1962 military coup when she was only 10 years old, she dedicated her life pursuits to advocate for communities in need. She worked as a report officer at the UN and UNICEF, focusing on issues like health, clean water and sanitation, displacement of families by natural disasters and disease outbreaks. While working for those organizations, she picked up skills like public speaking and became an advocate for children who could not fend for themselves and formulated cases on why the government should invest in women's education and rights. Now she continues to use her experiences in the world to spread her influence. Specifically, she talks about her struggles of being a woman in male-dominated spaces and why that allowed her to advocate for women's rights around the world. For example, she helped women in India so they can make their own income and be independent. In South Africa, she started a women's leadership training seminar, which she also mentioned in her TED Talk. She highlighted the importance of having these conversations with men as well because changing male mindsets can ease their behavior towards women and help dismantle gender inequality. She extended her passion for women's rights in Africa and the Caribbean where she campaigned to end violence against women. Her experience and interconnectedness with issues around the world truly shows why she considers herself a, "citizen of the world." 

    Towards the end of her presentation, she shared a powerful insight about how she connects empathy and passion to the issues she cares about: 

"Throughout life, you will come across issues that will strike you in the heart. That compassion ignites a passion to drive you to be a part of that solution. No individual, no family, no country, can live in a bubble. We are all global citizens."