Faces of Change: Mueda Nawanat (Thailand)
Source http://www.earthrights.org/multimedia/video/faces-change-mueda-nawanat-thailand
in 19 January 2015
In
this edition of our Faces of Change series, we hear from Mueda Nawanat,
who grew on the Thai/Myanmar border. While she herself was born
in Thailand, because she is a daughter of refugees from Myanmar, she is
considered a “stateless” person.
Because of this, she was denied a scholarship and high school
diploma, required for attending university. Mueda became so vocal about
life as a stateless student that academics, lawyers, and politicians
referred to her experience as a case study in the development of laws
for stateless people.
Eventually, she helped pass Article 23 in the 2008
Nationality Act, which allows people born in Thailand before 1992 to
apply for citizenship. Da officially became a Thai citizen in 2008
because of this.
She was motivated to attend EarthRights School Mekong after
witnessing the impacts of unsustainable development in stateless
communities. After graduation she created the Mekong Youth Assembly,
network of youth groups in the Mekong Region that strengthens
communities’ capacity to defend their earth rights.
Mueda believes that: “I don’t fight for myself, but I fight for my
family and also my village, so that if I fight, if I win, they also win
with me.”