Swe Mar Oo
As a representative of a minority community in religiously and ethnically diverse Myanmar, Swe Mar Oo was exposed early on to people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds. She currently works as a civic educator. She is also a committee member of Society of Enlightening Quranic Knowledge (SEQK). Since late 2012, conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar has escalated due to propaganda and rumours. Both communities have specific anxieties, and this realisation helped her understand that interreligious dialogue is important for social cohesion. She has been engaged in interreligious activities (e.g. interfaith dialogue, interfaith tour) with youth since 2012. She has many interreligious dialogue experiences. She facilitates interreligious dialogue hosted by the Judson Research Center (MIT) and occasionally the American Embassy cultural centre in Yangon. The factors for success of Swe Mar Oo are good communication and participation, respect to diversity, improved interfaith dialogue skill and trust building with other community. "Strength lies in differences, not in similarities" is her motto.