Nat Pha Yar Ma (Goddess) Institute

Nat Pha Yar Ma was founded in 2015 with the main focus of developing a society of young women in Myanmar who are actively engaged in community peace building and civic leadership. They work towards increasing young women’s confidence, leadership capacity and acquisition of political and peace knowledge in order to build intentional and positive community between women of different faiths and ethnicities.  The group believes that when women are involved in peacebuilding, they have the opportunity to effect significant structural change and rectify long standing gender inequality. Research has also shown that women have a stronger motivation to build peace and solve social problems non-violently. Finally, women play an important role in disrupting the transmission of ethno and religious nationalism to younger generations. During one of their peacebuilding training sessions, several participants indicated that the leadership action plans was the first time they recognized themselves as leaders. Other participants also stated that their community mapping for peace building helped them to feel empowered to be peace builders themselves. They also maintain a private chat group and contribute to the public online community by sharing training invitations, resources, and news.