Congratulations to the GAF Fellowship students
and Dr. Krishna R. Salin (right)
The 7th Global Conference on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries (GAF7) was held at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in October 2018. It has been agreed that part of the proceeds from GAF7 be converted to fellowship to support students study gender in aquaculture/ fisheries.
We would like to congratulate Ms. Nant May Than Htay from Myanmar, and Ms. Sujata Timelsina from Nepal to be awarded the fellowship.
They have enrolled in August 2019 and will be working on a thesis on gender in fisheries/ aquaculture under a co-supervision by Dr. Salin Krishna and Dr. Kyoko Kusakabe, co-organizers of GAF7 from AIT.
Ms. Nant May Than Htay
GDS Student
Nant May Than Htay has enrolled a graduate student at Gender and Development Studies, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Before joining AIT, she worked with organizations like National Young Women’s Christian Association Myanmar and The Lutheran World Federation Myanmar in various positions such as mentor, facilitator, team leader, trainer, coordinator, and program secretary with a specialization in Women’s Empowerment and Community Development. She worked in various types of the development program such as Integrated Rural Development, Child and Youth Development, Disaster Risk Reduction, Livelihood, Women, Young Women and Adolescent Girls Empowerment, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Cyclone Nargis Rehabilitation for 10 years since 2009 in the costal and remote area in Delta region and Karen State, Myanmar. She also served as a volunteer trainer in local CBOs, LNGOs and Faith Based Organizations.
She is passionate about Gender Equality, Violence Against Women, Social Justice, Women’s livelihood and exploring innovative methods to break down the barriers that prevent women from attaining their full potential. Since she has worked and stayed in the villages in the coastal area for over a year, she is interested to look at the role of women in fishery sector and their challenges in competing in the fish market where men dominate. She is also interested in understanding working women/fisher women and how they manage their productive and reproductive responsibilities. It would be a great opportunity to explore the stories of women and their challenges in the fishery sector of coastal region in Myanmar.
Ms. Sujata Timelsina
Sujata Timelsina is enrolled as a graduate student at Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management, Asian Institute of Technology. She is a fresh graduate of Fisheries Science and graduated from Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Nepal in 2018. Before enrolling at AIT, she worked with poor farmers especially women to raise different breeds of fishes in a scientific way so that farmers could optimize their production and gain higher economic benefits to improve their livelihoods condition. She has also received a few pieces of training related to the social and political leadership building of rural women communities. She is acquainted with the REFLECT approach of community empowerment and building the financial literacy capacity of farmers. As a researcher, she was also involved in conducting survey research titled “Impact of fish nutrition on child health in Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts of Nepal” in 2017.
She believes that aquaculture is a very profitable business to uplift the economic condition of poor farmers in Nepal. Since the Nepalese society is male-dominated, she wants to learn and replicate the gender-friendly skills and knowledge that she will gain through the master’s program in AIT to improve the well beings of rural women farmers. She believes gender equity and equality bring positive changes in society which will contribute towards building prosperity in the country. She is planning to do her master’s degree research on uplifting socio-economic condition of women through best approaches and technologies in aquaculture.