Our Stories
are Changing Myanmar
and the World
MYANMAR
A s the famous saying goes,
By: Ei Pwint Rhi Zan
We have raised money in
“Every conflict has two sides.” the streets and at a local mall.
As a social entrepreneur and However, we realized that we
changemaker from Myanmar, needed to do something more
I always believe that a “third” than donations for people in
vision to resolve conflict and the camps. Apparently, not all
create peace is highly essential. problems can be solved by do-
nations.
In 2012, Myanmar saw an
increase in conflicts through-
In 2014, in Teacher Min-
out the country. Along with dy’s English class, we had a
Thantzin Soe from Myanmar discussion about the lack of
Storytellers and others from Burmese children’s books. In-
different volunteer groups, I spired by our friend Swe Zin
visited Kachin State in Myan- from Phaung Daw Oo Monas-
mar to bring donations to peo- tic School who wanted to have
ple escaping the civil war.
books in her village library, we
15
discussed the importance of
having stories in our own lan-
guages that reflected our own
culture.
The “Third Story Project”
acquired its name from the
place where we would have our
English classes called Third
Story Monastic School. Coin-
cidentally, because of the con-
flicts that were happening in
Myanmar, we wanted to focus
on producing peace education
stories to create a “third” vi-
sion apart from the two sides
of conflict.