Kyaw Zin Myo – better known as KZ – loves working hands-on with communities in Myanmar. As CUFA’s Country Program Manager in this developing nation, it allows him to put his passion to best use – helping transform lives.

“The most enjoyment for me is working with the grass roots and getting to know more about their livelihoods in order to help them,” said KZ, who is married with a baby daughter.  One of his proudest achievements so far? “To see the CUD Project in Taik Kyi progressed by my own hand, and approved with the cooperation of the Taik Kyi Government.”

With the opening of CUFA’s brand new Taik Kyi office in the Yangon region, more than 3,000 people will have access to financial services and s safe place to save money for the first time in their lives.

KZ joined CUFA in 2014 after a career in the travel industry. “The main reason I wanted to work with CUFA was to help poor people,” he said. He now oversees all CUFA’s vital programs in Myanmar, including the Teachers Project in Lashio and the groundbreaking Credit Union project implementation in Taik Kyi township.

This transformational project has given around 3,000 of the most vulnerable people in Taik Kyi access for the first time ever to affordable financial services. To put KZ’s achievements into perspective, setting up a project of this scale in Myanmar is no mean feat, and required close negotiation with multiple stakeholders including the Minister for Social Affairs in the Yangon Region, the city and township governors, village group chiefs and community leaders.

KZ is only just getting started. He has firm ambitions to develop much-needed projects throughout Myanmar, from Credit Union Development projects to Childrens’ Financial Literacy and Village Entrepreneur projects.

As he puts it himself: “I really believe that this kind of education can move them out of poverty.”