KRYSS NETWORK

CORE TEAM MEMBERS

Angela M. Kuga Thas, Partner-Director

30 years of experience in promoting human rights, both nationally and internationally, Angela draws her knowledge and expertise through previous work experiences and her networking with human rights advocates in the field of gender and information and communication technologies; sexual and reproductive health and rights; women’s rights and the CEDAW Convention; human rights based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; poverty alleviation; HIV and AIDS; social entrepreneurship and women’s political equality. Angela has particularly keen interest and passion in the power of narratives, specifically in the development of counter and alternative narratives that would help promote the right to freedom of opinion and expression for all, especially for vulnerable and marginalised groups and communities.

Serene Lim, Partner-Director

Serene is a lawyer with experience in human right’s work, particularly in the area of gender equality and internet rights, where promoting and defending online freedom of opinion and expression while at the same time ensuring redress for sexual and gender-based violence in digital spaces is one of the most complex issues to address within a legislative framework. Drawing from her experience in research and in human rights organisations, Serene believes that undoing oppression and defending democracy requires change not only in law, but in politics, cultural, beliefs, technology, business and education.

Jananie Chandrarao, Research and Documentation Officer

Jananie is a Psychology graduate who is very passionate about mental health awareness and gender equality. Since her university days, she has organized and moderated multiple forums to discuss and create awareness about social problems, which later inspired her to conduct her final year research on Intimate Partner Violence. Her roles and responsibilities in KRYSS Network include researching, monitoring, and documenting online gender-based violence cases and referring support services to survivors of online gender-based violence. Besides being the Research and Documentation Officer at KRYSS Network, she is also a freelance writer. Jananie is a very friendly person who likes to talk about real-life struggles as she believes vulnerability brings us closer together.

JL, Communications and Media Officer

JL is a journalism graduate who is passionate about gender equality, education reform, and youth empowerment. A strong believer in women’s liberation, she aims to empower women and reclaim their lost voices through the power of her pen. As the Communication and Media Officer for KRYSS Network, she takes lead in the organization’s communication and media strategy and maintains the organization’s social media networks and communication channels. Jane is currently the project coordinator for KRYSS Network’s flagship event, ‘Berani Soal: A Virtual Workshop Roadshow and helps plan as well as execute outreach and public education activities at the organization.

Firzana Redzuan, Advocacy and Outreach Officer

Firzana is a youth consultant that advocates for children’s rights in all of their diversities. She believes that it is imperative to apply the feminist intersectionality framework in the advocacy of children’s issues to ensure that children who have been systemically excluded and disinvested do not fall through the cracks.

She founded Malaysia’s first youth-led child sexual abuse prevention NGO, Monsters Among Us (MAU). She also serves as the interim President of Protect and Save the Children, a child rights NGO providing educational tools and capacity building for adults to combat sexual violence involving children. Previously, she was a Programme Officer with ARROW’s Information and Communications team for almost two years working on projects on gender equality and the harmful practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

PEER ACCOUNTABILITY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR PEER ACCOUNTABILITY COMMITTEE FASHIONED AFTER THE IDEA BEHIND THE “KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDTABLE”, WHERE EVERYONE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES, BUT EVERYONE IS STILL EQUAL AT THE TABLE.

Jam Lim (2018-Present)

A communications specialist of over 10 years with a passion for science and technology, Jam Lim is the former editor of regional business tech publication Tech Wire Asia. Their interests lie in the intersectionality of tech and business with ethics, morality, and its economic/social impact on people, especially marginalized and underdeveloped communities. While at Tech Wire Asia, they covered news related to fintech, green and sustainable tech, e-Commerce, and cybersecurity, among others. Jam’s key interests lie in social justice, human rights, and women’s rights and empowerment. They are currently heading a consultancy providing media and communications services.

Mei (2022-Present)

Mei is a corporate person mining data and insights for a living. She stumbled into the world of advocacy and activism like Alice did with the Wonderland. She had in the past volunteered with the Women’s March movement in 2019 and Kryss Network for their initiatives on gender-based violence advocacy and research work since 2020.

As an ally to the LGBTQ community, it dawns on her to use her body (presence) and voice (participation) to help hold spaces (virtual/offline) with the intention for the larger collective to be heard and to be visible in addition to other many attempts to push back against ill-informed/ill-intentioned especially state-sponsored discrimination and dehumanizations towards queer persons.

Inspired by this quote by Ursula, “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

Mei hopes to make herself useful in the activism space as she continues to expand her queerverse through deeper involvement and learnings.

Thency Gunasekaran (2022-Present)

An experienced facilitator who has worked with various rights-based organisations over a span of 18 years, Thency has facilitated and held space on a range of subjects such as the prevention of child sexual abuse, child rights and protection, sexual gender-based violence, politicisation of ethnicity and religion, feminism, human rights, gender equality and unpacking patriarchy.

Thency is a passionate advocate for the rights of children and young people to be unapologetically themselves, free from fear and harm. She works with children, young people and adults to support the process of awareness, unlearning and recallibrating so that every person can confidently play their role to ensure that children and young people are able to truly be themselves. thency strongly believes that access to information along with understanding, internalising and living the concept of rights, consent and personal boundaries is a crucial step towards being able to live life as our true, authentic selves.

Dorian Wilde (2018-2021)

Dorian Wilde is a human rights advocate, working with other marginalized people to forward gender and sexual diversity education and rights. He is the founder of Transmen of Malaysia and a core member of Justice for Sisters. He is also the Outreach, Volunteerism, and Advocacy executive at Taylor’s University. He runs Taylor’s Speaker’s Corner, a brave, conducive space encouraging participants to share and listen to lived realities, ideas, discussions, debates, and talents. He is particularly interested in the intersections of gender and sexuality with climate change, healthcare, faith, politics, philosophy and many others.

Melissa Mohd. Akhir (2018-2021)

Melissa is a training officer with Women’s Aid Organisation(WAO). She holds an advanced L.L.M. in International Children’s Rights from Leiden University, Holland. She was involved in the Beijing +20 Forum on women’s rights in Southeast Asia, with the Asia Pacific Women in Law & Development. She was also a resource person for IWRAW Asia Pacific at the “Experts Meeting on Domestic Violence Protection Orders and Shelters”* with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, at the London School of Economics. At the national level, Melissa was a Senior Advocacy Officer at Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) for 6 years, where she had trained over 100 Malaysian judges, magistrates, Deputy Public Prosecutors, court interpreters, police, and social welfare officers on best practices on child victim’s rights, sexual crime cases, domestic violence that are in line with Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention the Rights of the Child (CRC).