NUG Representation in Australia

Australia Myanmar Institute invites you to a scheduled Zoom meeting

Date: September 26, 2022 (Monday)

Duration: 1 hour

Time: 06:00 - 07:00 PM (Australia/Melbourne Time); 14:30-15:30 (Myanmar/Yangon Time)

Join Zoom Meeting: please click here

Meeting ID: 5506154368
Passcode: 12345

The seminar will examine the role and purpose of the NUG office in Australia and particularly the consolidation of NUG’s relationships with Australia’s federal and state governments.  Dr Tun Aung Shwe will describe his function and objectives, Janelle Saffin will speak about her perspectives on the office and Lisa Mon will offer a short comment on the way Myanmar youth sees the office developing and meeting their needs.

Dr Tun Aung Shwe is the Representative of Myanmar’s National Unity Government in Australia, appointed on 19 July 2021. He was born in Mandalay and grew up in Yangon. He is a graduate of University of Medicine (1) Yangon, University of Economics Yangon and University of New South Wales in Sydney. He enjoyed the general practitioner life with local communities for 10 years in Kachin State, then he moved to non-profit, humanitarian sector, and worked for diverse projects and programs in Myanmar. He came to Australia for further study in public health and health management in 2008. Currently, he is undertaking Doctoral Studies at UNSW in the area of peace, conflict, and social cohesion.  He introduced sport for development and peace concept and practices in Myanmar and worked with Myanmar universities in 11 States and Regions in Myanmar since 2013. At the time of the coup, he was serving as a consultant for development of the national framework for social cohesion in Myanmar, a project led by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

Janelle Saffin MP is a member of the New South Wales Parliament and respected by all sides of politics. She is a member of AMI’s Special Advisory Reference Group. She has visited Myanmar many times and is well known there in academic, research, parliamentary and other governance circles. She is also a co-founder of the Australia Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and was Secretary of the Burma Lawyers Council from 1995-2005. Janelle has a long-standing commitment to economic, social, cultural and political progress in South East Asia and is a long time Special Adviser to President Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste. She is a valued Parliamentary and Machinery of Government Expert and sometime UNDP consultant in Myanmar and Timor-Leste.

Lisa Mon is a Project Coordinator at Education Services Australia and political activist, specializing in women and youths’ rights and development. She has a Masters of Information Systems from Melbourne University. Since the 2021 coup she has led the activist youth group in Victoria called Victorian Myanmar Youth and has also been active in groups that support the pro-democracy movement, including the Victorian State Member of CRPH/ NUG Support Group (Australia) and Women Activist Myanmar.

A question and answer session will be conducted after the presentation. For more information about AMI, please visit: aummi.edu.au/.

***NOTE: Zoom can work very well, but it poses difficulties for people with a poor internet connection. So, people from Myanmar (or elsewhere) who might have a poor internet connection or low bandwidth should turn off the video mode and listen to the seminar. You may be able to switch on the video from time to time just to see who is speaking, but definitely don’t use the video mode if you wish to speak yourself.  You can also pose questions using the chat function.  The whole seminar will be uploaded later on the AMI website and Facebook page.

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