Voice of the Voiceless

Mayfreen standing proud outside her recently built and freshly painted house
Mayfereen Ryntathiang

Mayfereen is a Social Worker with more than a decade of committed work put in the field of her choice and she is passionate about her work. She has done a Masters in English Literature and topped it up with education in Human Rights and recently completed a leadership and human rights course at Columbia University, with The International Indigenous Women Forum.
   
Mayfreen and her mother outside her recently built house
She founded and heads Grassroot, an NGO with its main objective being to encourage, empower and enhance people’s responsibility for societal change.  Mayfereen is actively associated with World Mountain People Association (WMPA). International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) to name a few. During her years of contribution to the society, she has also visited various
international conferences speaking her mind of human rights issues.  She was a part of the Mountain Community Team to present a motion on Anti uranium mining in Meghalaya at the UNESCO, Paris, represented the Presbyterian Church of India in Bangkok, Thailand in a workshop on Human Rights and was part of a South East Asian exposure trip on Violence against Women in Bangladesh.  In 2016, she represented India at the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous issues, at the UN Headquarters, New York, USA to lend a voice on land and cultural rights.
Mayfreen's mother and sister outside her sister's family home

   She is also a documentary filmmaker and script write- some of her documentaries like “Voice of the Voiceless”  “Hear our Voices- A Cry from the Himalayas” are note worthy productions.  Mayfereen initiated the documentation of the khasi folklore, ‘The Peacock and the Sun’ into an animation form to create a deeper understanding of the children to understand their roots while having wings. This animation is through a scholarship won from MILLION KISSES Foundation, USA.  As a president of Grassroot, (www.grassroot2007.org) it is her endeavour to encourage young passionate women to realise their potentials. 
   In December 2016, she and her team of thee young women are launching a SPEAK OUT Campaign to help women get legal access in the presence of snail slow legal system. This initiative is to cater to those marginlised abused women who cannot afford legal fees. This initiative is a fund raiser to encourage local funding for our own sisters and women.








     







     



   



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