Announcer:
This episode is sponsored by Connect to End COVID-19.
Greg Wright
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 Jue Jue Min Thu, 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?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Good, thank you for having me.
Greg Wright
So how did you first decide to become a social worker and are there a lot of social workers growing up in Burma?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
There weren't 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 have a lot of an injustice going on with the cool 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 unjust in my community. So that have been the main force for me to become a social worker. But also when I work at Planned Parenthood in 2014, around 14 and that's when I see a lot of injustice for women as well.
Greg Wright
Yeah. So I was wondering if you could describe what some of those injustices were that you saw Juju.
Jue Jue Min Thu:
So both in Burma and US, yeah? So growing up in Burma I see discrimination against different ethnic and I'm Burmese, I'm like white people in the US with 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 US I am a minority here. So my role reverse, my privilege reverse and I become aware of what the privilege and the responsibilities of it. And then especially being a woman in the US, now we're going through this movement of reproductive rights and when I was working for Planned Parenthood, I see the injustice for brown and minority community, how we have it underserved for their healthcare. And I see the income inequality that serve women, black woman, brown woman, 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 US.
Greg Wright
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 tell us more about that journey? How did you find out about educational opportunities here and which school of social work did you decide to attend here?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Yeah, so I actually came to the US 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 get into social work, I was planning to go to law school. So in my undergrad I study political science and international study because my dream was to return to Burma and change the constitution that served unjusted to a lot of Burmese communities. But then I realized that the people who wrote the law are writing these unjust 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 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 unjust society.
So I realized that in social work we can change a lot of laws as well as, individually, mental health and wellbeing. So instead of changing the law, I wanted to connect with individual level to find peace within each other. So that's when I started to heal myself and ask the also people around me. So it is 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 US and Burma both. So that's why I am more working on peace building within myself and my communities.
Greg Wright
Yeah. So you have already mentioned that you worked at Plan Parenthood here, but what other types of social work have you done here in the United States?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
So right now I'm at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. So I'm a Medical Social Worker. And so when you are in the medical social work setting, especially at work in the 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 more like community social work, leaderships, also 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.
Greg Wright
Yes. Yeah. I see. So you live in Hawai'i. Is there a large community there from Burma, Juju?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Is a small type community, yeah. We have about maybe two, 300 Burmese people in seven islands.
Greg Wright
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.
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Yeah. So we suffer from this military crew for years generationally. So that has the internet, intergenerational trauma and speak due to the civil world. And we get to taste the democracy for five to seven years. And that's changed a lot of people 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 discussion about mental health, there's no way you can go around talking about unjust 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 there's a lot of needs for social work. They're handfuls of Burmese student who came to the US to receive the former education and social work fields. So these people who receive the US education return back home to work in the Burmese community. The fundamental theory still works, but the framework, the resources, how to function and even following the code of ethic is very loose. So especially there is no association like [inaudible 00:09:21] value or rules of law to hold these professionals accountable for that. So basically there's very handful of Burmese social workers and a tiny little bit of clinician who will qualify to help these Burmese people who are suffering, not only for the mental health but also needs for the humanitarian aids, fundings for the programs to run affectionately. Burma doesn't get the attention as we deserve.
It could be because we are brown, we are Asian, we don't get that much attention like what happened in Ukraine. Ukrainian is similar that things happening in both country. But when you have that white privilege is totally different. Serve and the services are different. Even the humanitarian is, we don't get that much at all. We're just swimming in the mud. We're just fighting to restore the democracy back home in our own ways.
So especially when it's come to the social work, we're just kind of blind leading to blind. So basically what we need is more social workers to be educated. We need to get 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 program for women, a 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 live. A lot of things that we could be helping but we don't get that much attention that we deserve.
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Greg Wright
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?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Oh, so for the security, we use Cigna app. Cigna app is very secure compared to Facebook Messenger, or Vibe, or anything like that. So that's how we stay in contact. Because 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 than Facebook. The government is watching; the military government is watching. So with the social workers, we have groups that we chat. I talk to the Burmese social worker back home where the struggle they are facing or things that we can work together, especially when you become a social worker. Even in the US, we can't just be a social worker, we become community leader where we become humanitarian, aide worker, whatever it may be. You might be wearing more than three hats at the same time, even advocate or politicians, whatever your role need to serve. So for me as a social worker outside of the country, I'm trying to provide financially or training, support, connecting with right people for things that could be beneficial for social worker back home.
Greg Wright
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?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
It is close to my heart when it's come to the women rights and reproductive health rights. Whether I live in the US or in Burma, women, we have faced these oppressions throughout the history, through this decades. The nature of the oppression may change, but we state are still suffering from this oppress society. So especially, even in the US, we have more resources and that law tend to be protecting the women 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 law to begin with. And then, in fact, just being a woman is not vulnerable. There're layers and layers of oppress to against the woman. For example, the leaders from Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner. She is a strong woman figure and she has won election again and again and again because of our strong leadership and because she's just being a woman, the men are threatened by her present.
And because of these men feeling insecure, men feeling losing their rules is become their toxic masculinity have made an effort in the whole country to take over the power by the force weapons with this and just laws. So because we are not able to make sure, that's why I think mental health is so important for men as well because we haven't created society or make a space for men to feel vulnerable, being scared, being insecure, being angry. 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 cliche 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's Safe Space. That way I try to create the community where everybody feels safe.
Greg Wright
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 Hawai'i and we're on the east coast, that we finally had a chance to have a conversation. So for a final question on me, 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?
Jue Jue Min Thu:
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 in the main purpose, and then my main mission is to also be a force for mental health movement. So whether I live in the US, Hawai'i, Burma, Thailand, whatever, I may be there. Burmese people all around the world and 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't just talk about, we need to put actions and resources and the falls behind that. So that's why I would like to get more support in mental health services for Burmese community as well as even in the US. I live in the US, I'm a US citizen. I also love this country. Wherever I may be, I will be a beneficial for any community that I belong to. So especially for Burma, I'm learning so much from the US democracy and that's our hopes and dream to restore democracy in Burma as well.
Greg Wright
Jue Jue Min Thu, thank you so much for being our guest on Social Work Talks and you have a wonderful day. Thank you.
Jue Jue Min Thu:
Thank you Greg. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
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