Cross posted from my travel blog.

From my seat in a bustling sidewalk restaurant in Yangon, Burma, it’s hard to imagine these same streets just 20 years ago. In August 1988, thousands of students, fed up with years of repressive military rule, protested for democracy and were brutally slaughtered by government machine guns. Yesterday’s fair election of opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Parliament is a promising step for Burma, but the road to true democracy remains long. 

On this day, I’m joined by two soft-spoken, smiling graduate students in their mid-twenties, Tin and Htet, who goes by the nickname “Pinkgold.”  We converse freely in English about their environmental activism amid the restaurant’s clatter-- a freedom that would have been impossible not long ago because of the threat of government spies.  As I fumble with my chopsticks, they begin to tell me what it’s like to organize in one of the most repressive countries in the world. 

Htet has been passionate about social issues from an early age.  But it wasn’t until 2010, when government restrictions began to ease, that she felt there might be enough political space for organizing to make a real difference.  She formed Myanmar Youths In Action (MIYA), which seeks to empower young people to tackle some of the country's most pressing issues, including environment, health, and poverty. For their inaugural event, they joined with thousands around the world for 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party by planting 50 trees.

In a country where most people scrape by on less than a dollar a day, why did they decide that the environment was the most pressing issue facing the youth of Myanmar? For Htet, the answer is obvious: “Young people know that our entire future depends on a safe climate and clean environment.”