NYEIN SEIK: FROM STUDENT TO CHANGE MAKER

Nyien Seik was a student at the World Education program Wide Horizons when we was 22 years old. Looking back

now he says, “Wide Horizons is really good for youth. University in Burma does not prepare people for work or for

life like Wide Horizons does.”

Nyein Seik is now 29 years old. He is from a region in Southeast Burma called Mon State. This is the area where

the Mon people are from. The Mon are one of the many ethnic minority groups in Burma who are struggling for

the development of their youth and the recognition of their culture and native language in a region fraught with a

history of poverty, civil war and oppression.

Youth unemployment is very high and the

ability to find relevant training programs and

services is a great challenge. This is a

challenge that Nyein Seik knows well and he

is now widely recognized as a leader and a

change maker.

In 2006 Nyein Seik joined the first group of

students to attend World Education’s Wide

Horizons Program in Mae Sot, Thailand. This

is a 10 month intensive study and field work

course for community development followed

by a one year internship with a civil service

organization. The program brings in young

adults from a wide variety of ethnicities to

live and work together while learning the skills to build community services in a collaborative way. Now into the

eighth year of the school, Wide Horizons has trained hundreds of young adults who are now community workers

and leaders.

After finishing Wide Horizons, Nyein Seik completed his internship with the Mon Youth Progressive Organization

(MYPO) and while there he started a small training program inside of the organization using the style of learning

and some of the content from Wide Horizons to train members and staff of this organization. Soon after his

internship was completed Nyein Seik was elected the chairman of MYPO and from there was appointed as the

Mon youth representative to the Student Youth Congress of Burma where, in short order, he was then elected as

the joint secretary. In this capacity he represented the Burmese youth at international conferences held by ASEAN

where in one session he was the master of ceremonies for the event. While holding these positions, Nyein Seik

was also chosen to be the general secretary of the Mon Youth Forum, which is a network of youth groups

throughout the entire Mon State. This network provided training and workshops to youth across the region while

also providing them with a voice and the ability for their dreams for the future to be heard.

At the beginning of 2014 Nyein Seik was appointed as the general secretary of the Rhamanya Peace Foundation.

The RPF is one of the only registered civil service organizations in the Mon State of Burma. The foundation

provides support and services to civil society organizations operating in the region in the health, education, youth

development, women’s issues and relief sectors. The beneficiaries of the foundation are in the hundreds of

thousands. Nyein Seik sees the foundation as being only providing services but also being a bridge to the local and

The skills Nyein Seik learned 8 years ago at Wide

Horizons enabled him to be a change maker in his

community.

national government to work on issues such as the recognition of teachers and medics and the use of Mon

language in schools.

Reflecting on his time at Wide Horizons, Nyein Seik sees the value in so much of what he learned, from the English

language skills, to self-confidence and presentation skills and computer skills. When reflecting on what he

considered the most important Nyein Seik said, “Community development was the most important skill to learn,”

and it is this skill set that he has used each day in his work since the program was finished.

For the future Nyein Seik would like to see a Wide Horizons school in Mon State. With his regional networks he

knows and sees the need of the youth and knows that a program like Wide Horizons would give them strength,

hope and help work towards building a better civil society. When asked who would operate the program Nyein

Seik said clearly that the Wide Horizons alumni can handle this responsibility. When asked what he needed to

make this happen it was only the support to get started.