NASW Social Work Talks - EP91: Social Work from a Burmese Perspective

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

In February 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Since then, the killing of civilians in Myanmar has increased. In response, Jue Jue Min Thu, a licensed social worker from Myanmar now based in Hawai'i, created Jue Jue's Safe Space, to support mental health for the Myanmar community. Visit the show notes page for related resources.

This episode is sponsored by Connect to End COVID-19. Welcome to Social Work Talks. My name is Greg Wright, and we are starting a series where we are talking to social workers from other nations. Our first is Juju Min Tu, who is from the nation of Myanmar in South Asia. It's also known as Burma. Welcome to Social Work Talks, Juju. How are you doing today? Good.

Thank you for having me. So how did you first decide to become a social worker? And are there a lot of social workers growing up in Burma? There were not a lot of social workers growing up in Burma, But the philosophy of social work and the social justice that I have believed in, even before I understand the words of social justice and the value and the responsibilities of it, especially my journey coming from Burma, where the society of a lot of injustice going on with the coup and without rules of law, how life has been injustice for a lot of Burmese people inside the country. So I have seen a lot of injustice in my community. So that has been my main force for me to become a social worker. But also, yeah, when I work at Planned Parenthood in 2014, around 14, that's when I see a lot of

injustice for women as well yes so um i was wondering if you could describe what some of those injustices were that you saw juju um so both in burma and u.s yeah so um growing up in burma you know i see discrimination against different ethnic and uh i'm burmese i'm like uh white people in the u.s with the privilege a lot of privilege i got a lot of benefit out of the system but i was not aware of my privilege but when i came to the u.s i am a minority here so my role reversed my privilege reversed and i become aware of what the privilege and the responsibilities of it and then especially being a woman in the u.s um you know now we're going through this movement of reproductive right. And when I was working for Planned Parenthood, I see the injustice for

brown and minority community, how we have it underserved for their health care. And I see the income inequality that serve women, black women, brown women, not to have the access to birth control or having a right on our own body. So I see a lot of injustice for women, back home in Burma as well as in the U.S. Gotcha. So you made a decision really to move thousands and thousands of miles in order to get an education in social work. Could you like tell us more about that journey? Like how did you like find out about educational opportunities here and which school of social work did you decide to attend here? Yeah, so I actually came to the U.S. for my undergrad degree,

but for the social work, I went to Washington University in St. Louis, the Brown School of Social Work. So before that, when I got into social work, I was planning to go to law school. So in my undergrad, I studied political science and international study because my dream was to return to Burma and change the constitution that served and adjusted to a lot of Burmese communities. uh but then i realized that you know the people who wrote the law are um writing these and just law because they're not aware some of them not aware of what they're writing but also a lot of the law that when you look at in every society is described that manifestation of disorder

when you see these disorder when you look at it underneath there's a lot of mental illnesses that create and just society so i realized that in social where we can change a lot of laws as well as individually uh mental health and well-being so instead of changing the law i wanted to uh connect with individual level to find peace within each other so that's when i starting to heal myself and also people around me so it's like a ripple effect if I'm constantly seeking for inner peace and healing myself and as well as people that the peaceful effect will be a ripple effect to people around me my community my family my countries when I say countries now is the U.S. environment both so that's why I am more like working on peace building within myself

and my communities. Yes so you have already mentioned that you worked at Planned Parenthood here but what other types of like social work have you done here in the United States? So right now I'm at Quinn's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii so I'm a medical social worker and so when you are in the medical social work setting especially I work in a cardiac ICU I see a lot of substance use elderly geriatric care and also a lot of psych patients and right after I graduated from social work school I was in a psych hospital so inpatient psych and also for my Burmese community it's It's more like community, social work, leaderships, also, you know, connecting community, community building.

So I first started as like, oh, I just want to be a clinical social worker. But then I see that I can utilize my social work skill in every different levels. So basically medical, social work, community work, leadership everywhere. Yes. Yeah, I see. So you live in Hawaii. Is there a large community there from Burma, Juju? It's a small Thai community, yeah. We have about maybe two, three hundred Burmese people in seven islands. Burma had years of military rule and they also had a coup recently. So I'm guessing that there's a big need for social work there.

And I was wondering if you could give our listeners an idea of the social issues there and the problems that social workers can actually address in Burma. Yeah, so we suffer from this military coup for years, generationally. So that has the intergenerational trauma and speak due to the civil world. And we get to taste the democracy for like five to seven years. And that's changed a lot of people's mindset, education. The Gen Z had a lot of benefit out of that democracy. and when people are able to speak English be able to go to school and starting to use their critical thinking instead of just living under the fear it has a lot of benefit but on the other

hand now within a year of the coup we're starting to feel the fear again even when I'm talking do my talk shows or you know discussion about mental health you know there's no way you can go around talking about and jest in the society so i even have to be careful how i speak to the burmese community especially in the public now the fear has kicking within even a year so um there's a lot of needs for social work there are handfuls of burmese students who came to the u.s to receive the former education and social work fields so um you know these people who receive the u.s education and return back home to work in the burmese community uh the fundamental theory still works but the framework the resources uh how to function and as even like following the

code of ethics is very loose so you know especially there is no association like nes value or rules of law to hold these um professionals accountable uh for that so you know basically uh there's very handful of burmese social workers and a tiny little bit of clinicians who are qualified to help these Burmese people who are suffering, not only for the mental health, but also needs for the humanitarian aids, funding for the programs to run efficiently. Burma doesn't get the attention as we deserve. It could be because, you know, we are brown, we are Asian, we don't get that much attention like what happened in Ukraine. you know ukrainian is similar had things happening in both countries but uh you know when you have

that white privilege it's totally different uh serve and the services are different even the humanitarian is we don't get that much at all like we're just swimming in the mad we're just fighting to restore the democracy back home in our own ways so uh especially when it's come to the social work which is kind of blind leading to blind. So basically what we need is more social workers to be educated. We need to give more scholarship to Burmese people who want to become social work. And also we need fundings to run for the programs.

So for example, I am running a program for a woman survivor who has faced sexual violence in conflict. But we do not have funding, but we just go ahead and do it because that's my passion to help the woman. And also, there are so many political prisoners, young people who have lost their dreams and lives and, you know, a lot of things that we could be helping, but we don't get that much attention that we deserve. Join NASW's National Connect to End COVID-19 effort. It's a CDC-funded initiative to support social workers and their clients in informed vaccine decision-making. NASW is collaborating with its partner, the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks

School of Social Work, to provide national webinars, chapter trainings, tools, and information that promote vaccine confidence among social workers and equip social workers to support clients in informed vaccine decision-making. Visit NASW's website to learn more. Oh, wow, wow. So how do you communicate with social workers back home in Burma? Are there Zoom calls? Are you visiting?

In other words, I was wondering how you are building up coalitions with the people there. Oh, so for the security, we use Cigna app. Cigna app is very secure compared to like Messenger, Facebook messengers or Viber or anything like that. so that's how we stay in contact because uh in Burma you can't really use Facebook like the way we use it it's kind of like in China so they have to use the other route to use the Facebook the government is watching the military government is watching so with the social workers we have groups that we chat in uh I talk to the Burmese social worker back home where the struggle they facing or things that uh you know we can work together especially you know when you become a

social worker even in the us we can't just be a social worker we can we become you know community leader where we become humanitarian aid worker whatever it may be you might be wearing more than three hats at the same time even like advocate or you know politic uh politicians whatever your rural need to serve. So for me as a social worker outside of the country, I try to provide financially or training, support, connecting with right people for things that could be beneficial for social worker back home. Gotcha. So I noticed that you have brought up the issue of sexual violence a lot. And why is this issue so important to you, Juju? It is close to my heart when it comes to the, you know, women's rights and reproductive health

rights. Whether I live in the U.S. or in Burma, women, you know, we have faced these oppressions throughout the history, through these decades. The nature of the oppression may change, but we are still suffering from this oppressed society. So, you know, especially even in the U.S., we have more resources and the law tends to be, you know, protecting the woman supposedly, but it's also changing.

We're going backward. And then especially in the third world country like Burma, there's no strong rules and laws to begin with. And then in fact, you know, just being a woman is another vulnerable, you know, there's layers and layers of oppression against the woman. For example, you know, the leaders from Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Winner, she is a strong woman figure and she has won elections again and again and again because of her strong leadership. And because she's just being a woman, the men are threatened by her presence. And because of these men feeling insecure, men feeling losing their roles, you know, it's become their toxic masculinity have made an effect in the whole country to take over the power by the force, weapons, you know, with this. and just loss so because we are not able to make sure that's why i think mental health is so important for men as well because you know we haven't created a society or make a space for

men to feel vulnerable being scared being insecure being angry you know that's why it's important for creating a safe space for both men and women and creating a society where we can live in harmony And it sounds so cliché to talk about it, but this is so fundamental for both men and women to feel safe in our society. That's why I have this mental health page and organization called Juju Safe Space. That way I try to create the community where everybody feels safe. Thank you. So it's really been a pleasure having a conversation with you. I met you at the NASW National Conference in June at a session. You were so enthusiastic and warm.

So I'm so glad after going through a lot of scheduling because you're out in Hawaii and we're on the East Coast that we finally had a chance to have a conversation. So for a final question, I mean, I wanted to ask you, as far as Burma, what are your hopes for the future of your country and how do you think social work might help Burma attain what you actually wish or want for it? So my main wish is to return back home in Burma, especially as the Burmese community, we're working together to restore democracy. And so the main purpose and my main mission is to also be a force for mental health movement. So whether I live in the US, Hawaii, Burma, Thailand, whatever I may be there, Burmese people all around the world. And, you know, mental health is so important. Now we pay a lot of attention in the US, in Burma, everywhere else, starting to mental health, we can trendy very hot topic to talk about. And at the same time, we can just

talk about we need to put actions and resources and the force behind that. So you know, that's why I would like to get more support in mental health services for Burmese community as well as even in the U.S. You know, I live in the U.S. I'm a U.S. citizen. I also love this country. Wherever I may be, I will be a beneficiary for any community that I belong to. So, you know, especially for Burma, I'm learning so much from the U.S. democracy, and that's our hopes and dream to restore democracy in Burma as well. Juju, men too, thank you so much for being our guests on Social Work Talks, and you have a wonderful day. Thank you. Thank you, Grant. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. needs. You have been listening to NASW Social Work Talks, a production of the National Association

of Social Workers. We encourage you to visit NASW's website for more information about our efforts to enhance the professional growth and development of our members, to create and maintain professional standards, and to advance sound social policies. You can learn more at www.socialworkers.org. And don't forget to subscribe to NASW Social Work Talks wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We look forward to seeing you next episode.