CASE STUDY:
MAKING WAVES IN MYANMAR
Kay Thi Win is a leading sex worker rights advocate
who has been working on addressing the human
rights issues of sex workers in Myanmar—a highly
marginalized community in a restrictive environment.
Kay Thi has been a partner of Asia Catalyst for nearly
five years, but began her journey as a human rights
advocate over a decade ago. In 2003, she knew the
challenges and needs of Myanmar’s sex workers
intimately, as she was a sex worker herself. It was
not until she started working for Population Services
International (PSI), one of the largest NGOs in the
country, that she learned that sex workers had human
rights. In 2005, she became a member of the AsiaPacific Network for Sex Workers (APNSW), and
gradually began organizing within the sex worker
community.
In November 2009, Kay Thi and other sex workers
founded Myanmar’s National Network of Sex
Workers (NNSW), a national, regional, and global
community network. Although NNSW had been
successful in receiving funding from The United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and The United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID), the CBO lacked a clear strategic plan
for both programming and organizational growth.
Thus, in 2010, NNSW applied for Asia Catalyst’s
Tailored Coaching program to address this gap
in organizational management. Over the next few
months, Asia Catalyst trained NNSW on organizational
development skills and strategic planning, helping the
budding group to lay the groundwork for continued
growth.
To desensitize its work and operate with the support
of the government, NNSW registered legally as
a nonprofit organization called Aye Myanmar