Inspiring peacebuilder: Wae-Ismail NaeSae (Adam)

From the 'Peace Together: Inspiring Peacebuilders Promoting Gender Equality and Sustainable Peace in South-East Asia' exhibition series produced for the UN Women regional project, 'Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN,' funded by the Governments of Canada and the Republic of Korea. View the exhibition.

“Peace for me is the visible absence of conflict and violence, in which everyone feels safe to live and earn their livelihood. Peace is the feeling of being protected.”

Wae-Ismail NaeSae, or Adam, is Director of the People’s College, an organization in Pattani that empowers young people and women to promote peace in Thailand’s southernmost provinces, which have been plagued by decades of intermittent, violent civil conflict.  

Adam is one of the 21 inspiring peace builders in Peace Together exhibition, who despite coming from various backgrounds and areas of work, but have made lives better in homes and communities, and across the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and beyond. 

Adam has been working on conflict prevention and peacebuilding since 2007, when he volunteered at a human rights organization.

“It was the violence, the extreme tension of the situation,” Adam recalls the conflict during that time. “People were arrested, detained, and even lost their lives, and from there, I was motivated to work on peace.” 

Adam has supported peace talks among activists, local community and government representatives, and religious leaders.

The People’s College educates youths to lead in peace efforts, trains communities on human rights and peace, and helps to heal survivors of the conflict.  

The People’s College course delves into the peace negotiation between the Thai Government and the insurgents. It uses many lessons from the easing of conflict in other areas, such as Aceh in Indonesia and regions in the southern Philippines. Women working for peace make up almost half of the students enrolled in the latest course. 

“After our training course, around 30-40 per cent of participants went on to establish their own nonprofit organizations, while attendees from local non-governmental organizations in Pattani were also able to replicate the courses to train volunteers and staff in their organizations,” Adam says.

Adam says his own safety is one of his biggest challenges, and it’s the same for many other men. “More often, it is men who are arrested, detained, or flee in fear for their lives, so this is when we see women take the lead in their communities,” he says.

“More women engaged in politics and peacebuilding, in general, can only be a positive thing for peace as women can often influence their own community much more effectively, particularly with their trust and listening skills,” Adam says.

******

Peace Together: Inspiring Peacebuilders Promoting Gender Equality and Sustainable Peace in South-East Asia

UN Women thanks the 21 peacebuilders profiled here who shared their stories so as to motivate others to join the movement towards more peaceful and just communities. We also thank the photographers who captured these stories in the cities and countryside of the 10 countries of ASEAN.

We thank the Satu Bumi Jaya team based in Bali, Indonesia for their creative design of content, storytelling and development of this exhibition.

This exhibition was created under a partnership between ASEAN and UN Women and funded by the Governments of Canada and the Republic of Korea. This initiative was made possible under the leadership of Cambodia as the Chair of ASEAN in 2022, particularly the strategic guidance and continuous support from the ASEAN Committee on Women Cambodia. Special thanks must be given to the ASEAN Secretariat Poverty, Eradication and Gender Division for supporting the coordination of this initiative.