Nâung Nâung

Meet Nâung, a young enthusiastic, and creative mentor at EDNA in Myanmar. EDNA, also known as Entrepreneurship Development Network Asia Myanmar, is a social enterprise and an education and research organization. They work together with different actors like ministries, universities, and institutions to support entrepreneurial growth in Myanmar and Asia. The main focus of EDNA is on women, youth, and disadvantaged groups across Myanmar. They give these communities a chance to develop by offering professional development courses. Their newest campaign is supporting youth leaders from Myanmar to become social entrepreneurs by mentoring and facilitating. Nâung is helping these communities with training, educating, mentoring, teaching, and inspiring entrepreneurship. He and EDNA always take into account that a business must be environmentally-friendly or have a social consciousness.

In 2018, Nâung took leadership as a coordinator for sustainable livelihoods in Chaung Tha. The purpose of this project was to live more sustainable. However, it was not easy to engage local communities to live more sustainable. Most people are busy and live basic day-to-day lives and focus on survival rather than the future and sustainability. However, Nâung managed to lead the campaign and engage communities successfully. Here it showed that he has a talent for coordinating, communicating, networking, and facilitating.
Besides mentoring communities, he has ideas of reusing raw materials and transforming them into value-added products. Many locals find it difficult to generate incomes. He found a way to preserve the environment, simultaneously using natural resources to produce local products. An example is the coconut shell; the waste of coconut shells is growing due tourism. He transforms the waste into various value-added products. Now people can generate more money, and there will be less waste.

In the future, Nâung wants to eliminate waste and focus on making the natural environment beautiful. He has a strong desire to support vulnerable people and save resources. His next steps of going there are improving his personal development skills, leadership skills, management skills, and English skills. He used the grant to continue his internship at EDNA Myanmar and next to that study English in Yangon. With these incredible activities, Nâung can grow as a leader and create connections with different organizations and communities.