February 2, 2010
For Immediate Release
Mame Annan-Brown, 202-559-7409
annan-brown@genocideintervention.net

Myra Dahgaypaw one of eighteen nationwide picked to lead organizing against world’s worst crimes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Genocide Intervention Network today announced that Queens local Myra Dahgaypaw has been named a Carl Wilkens Fellow. This unique fellowship recognizes community leaders who possess the commitment to fight genocide and the potential to make a difference in the lives of people in Darfur, Burma and other areas around the world. Launched last year, the fellowship will provide Dahgaypaw with advocacy training, access to experts and an organizing grant.

Myra Dahgaypaw is a human rights activist from Karen State, Eastern Burma.  She was an Internally Displaced Person for 12 years and a refugee for 17 years, until she fled to the United States. Due to the oppression, torture and killing by the Burmese SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) troops, Dahgaypaw lost many of the people she knows, including, but not limited to, her own immediate family members, close relatives and close friends.  Dahgaypaw started to become a passionate community organizer when she was thirteen years old. She has been a strong community organizer and a committed human rights advocate for over a decade and currently is engaged with various human rights issues in Burma. Dahgaypaw is currently working with The Burma Fund-UN Office in New York, an organization that advocates with the UN missions on Burma issues.

The Carl Wilkens Fellowship was named in honor of Carl Wilkens. Carl Wilkens was the only American to stay in Rwanda through the entirety of the Rwandan genocide. Despite warnings from the American embassy, Carl risked his life and stayed in Rwanda to try to help the people he had come to know and love there.

Carl Wilkens said, “Change begins with one. So few people in America were aware of the Rwanda genocide at the time it was happening, and even fewer were equipped to do something to end it. That’s why I’m so excited that Myra Dahgaypaw has been selected to join this year’s class of Carl Wilkens Fellows. I know she will be a lifelong leader in the movement to end genocide.”

About Genocide Intervention Network – Genocide Intervention Network empowers individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. Currently focused on conflicts in Sudan, Burma and Democratic Republic of Congo, among other areas of concern, Genocide Intervention Network envisions a world in which the global community is willing and able to protect civilians from genocide and mass atrocities.  The organization is building a permanent anti-genocide constituency, mobilizing the political will to prevent and stop genocide. For more information, please visit www.genocideintervention.net