Burmese refugee, Myra Dahgaypaw to speak at W.C.

[ZIRC]

Former Burmese refugee Myra Dahgaypaw will be speaking in McCoy Room of Kelly Center at Wilmington College on Monday, April 11 at 8 p.m. Burmese refugee to speak at W.C. WC STAND will host Myra Dahgaypaw, a Burmese refugee turned grassroots coordinator, on Monday, April 11, at 8 p.m. in the McCoy Room of Kelly Center on the Wilmington College campus. WC STAND is the Wilmington College chapter of the national anti-genocide coalition. The student wing of the Genocide Intervention Network, each chapter and member works to raise awareness of genocide on their home campus or in their local community. They also lobby Congress on bills regarding human rights or genocide prevention. The most prevalent current genocides are happening in Darfur, Sudan, the Congo and Burma. Dahgaypaw will speak on the latter. A human rights activist and community organizer for over a decade, Dahgaypaw is from Karen State, Eastern Burma (now known officially as Myanmar). She was an Internally Displaced Person for 12 years and a refugee for 17 years before fleeing to the United States. She lost her immediate family and many close friends to oppression, torture and murder by Burmese State Peace and Development Council troops. As a member of the Karen Women’s Organization and a board member of the Karen American Communities Foundation, Myra testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission at a 2009 Congressional hearing on human rights abuses in Burma. She is also currently a fellow of the Carl Wilkens Fellowship with GI-Net in Washington, D.C. She worked as a Burmese human rights advocate at the U.N. for three years before becoming the national campaign coordinator for the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The USBC is an organization dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to rally for human rights and to bring an end to the military dictatorship in Burma. Dahgaypaw will speak briefly on the history of the conflict in Burma as well as the current situation before opening the floor to questions.

 

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