Asian Descent > Burma Archives

Dr Yin May

Yin May, the first Burmese obstetrician and gynecologist, founded and ran the country’s main maternity hospital during the Japanese occupation of Burma. She was the first person to perform the Caesarian section in Burma and is known for her research on amoebic vaginitis, also called May’s disease.
While pregnant and separated from her family, Yin May founded the country’s primary maternity hospital during the Japanese occupation (1942–1945), working long hours with staff who had no OB/GYN experience. Burma had lost its main maternity hospital, Lady Dufferin Maternity Hospital, on 25 December 1941 due to Japanese aerial bombing and then the Japanese army commandeered Rangoon General Hospital for their use only. She later co-founded wartime medical and nursing schools (1943–1945). After World Wai II, she ran Lady Dufferin Maternity Hospital from 1946 to 1959, and was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Faculty of Medicine of Rangoon University from 1947 to 1959. Under her leadership, Dufferin became a maternity hospital recognized by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1957.

Dr Yin Yin Nwe

Dr Yin Yin Nwe is a geologist who has held signficant positions with UNICEF since 1991, and was appointed UNICEF Representative to China on 1 December 2006, retiring in 2011.
Yin Yin Nwe served for 19 years at the Geology Department of Yangon University. Joining UNICEF as an Environment Project Officer in 1991, she served from 1992 to 1994, as UNICEF Programme Officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Central Asian Republics and Albania. She then became a regional advisor for western and central Africa in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (1994-1999). In 1999, she was appointed UNICEF Regional Planning Officer for the Middle East and North Africa and in June 2005 was appointed UNICEF Chief of Tsunami Support, working to help victims in Indonesia.
In August 2012, President Thein Sein appointed Dr. Yin Yin Nwe as part of an Inquiry Commission to look into communal violence in Rakhine State. The commission completed its work and submitted a report the following year.
In June 2014, Presidnet Thein Sein appointed Dr. Yin Yin Nwe Chief Education Advisor. She had also previously served as an advisor to the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), and was a member of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council and a member of the Education Promotion Implementation Committee (EPIC), advocating for education reform.