Burçu Munyas is the global program manager for the Child Poverty Global Initiative for Save the Children in London. She manages a program that seeks to hold governments accountable to carry forward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and also to address child poverty in the United Kingdom.
Prior to serving in this role, Burçu was the accountability adviser for Save the Children. In her role, she supported 15 country programs that provide technical assistance and funding to hold authorities accountable for child rights.
Burçu formerly was a project manager with Catholic Relief Services in Jerusalem, where she coordinated projects that focused on youth and education and worked closely with Catholic Relief Services' Gaza office.
Born and raised in Turkey, Burçu came to Notre Dame to earn a master's degree at the Kroc Institute. Her Kroc internship took her to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she conducted research to understand how that country's genocide had affected young people. The results of her study were used to design a new educational program for Cambodian youth, and her research was published in the Journal for Genocide Research.
"My internship was a great stretch and very formative for me," Burçu said. "At the Kroc Institute, we were encouraged to be scholar-practitioners. The fieldwork gave me the opportunity to put that into practice, which shaped my aspirations and my career."
"People working to build peace must have hope," Burçu said. "Hope for me was generated at the Kroc Institute, when I met people who were both idealistic and realistic in looking for alternatives to conflict."
Updated February 2018.