At 32 y.o I chose to become a journalist because I want to help my community with factual news and information. The first story I wrote was about the lack of ethnic voices in the Yangon-based cinema world in Myanmar and I wrote it with a friend from Shan state. Since then, I have written a lot of news and video interviews with politicians and businessmen but none are my favorite yet.

The hardest work in my journalist life was in 2019 when I went to Internally Displaced People camps in Buthidaund and Rethedaung townships in Northern Rakhine. I had to carry my cameras and kits in cloth packages so the Myanmar troops posted in checkpoints along the way wouldn’t see them.

Recently, I took pictures of Arakan Army soldiers training at their camp during Memorial Day, which commemorates every year the death of six cadets from the Arakan Army on November 19th, 2013. The next day, offices of local media were raided and we all had to go into hiding.

I am working with a DSLR camera, a recording mic, a tripod, a computer and a smartphone. I would need to replace my camera and get a better zoom, and my smartphone because the screen is broken and doesn’t work properly anymore.

Even if my journalist work is a risk, I will keep doing it for the benefit of my community and to open their eyes and ears with news. I believe that a photograph can speak a thousand words.