My name is Midnight, the Executive Director of APCOM and I have been working here since 2010. In my capacity, I try to find solutions and allow team members to take a leadership role within their work. I am most proud of the time I spoke at the UN General Assembly for the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. APCOM is a fantastic place to work because of the multi-cultural office setting, and working at the regional gives you a good overview of challenges that our community face on issues of human rights of LGBTI, and also access to services. I enjoy getting massages, traveling, and my favourite ice cream is rum & raisin.

My name is Wattana or you can call me by my nickname “A”. My working background is related to HIV, especially for MSM groups. I started my first career in 2009 as a project coordinator at the Poz Home Center. My job was nothing but providing the access and knowledge of HIV between communities, hospitals and public health centers. Furthermore, I also handled the personal and group discussion for people who live with HIV online and offline. In 2013, I shifted to work at APCOM as the coordinator between APCOM and the local LGBTQIA+ partners in Thailand to promote APCOM campaigns of blood testing and medical access (PrEP) focusing on MSM groups currently through TestBKK campaign. From the very early time until now I have been handling the online community of people who live with HIV in Thailand for 10 years already. As my ability expands, I become one of the board members at APCOM Foundation today.

In my views, the equality of common things such as the healthcare system for everyone (including LGBTQIA+ people) should be applied. Everyone in the country should be able to get the proper access to healthcare for their normal quality of life, for less stigmas in the society by gender discriminations. When I have free time, I enjoy planting trees and give some of them to friends who also love planting trees as well. Besides, I like cooking. Every time I cook, I always prepare food not for only me but also friends and neighbors. Seeing them enjoying the food I cook is my pleasure.

Selvan, originally from India, joined APCOM family in 2015. He has been working with LGBT communities for almost 8 years, and has passion to continuing working with/for LGBT communities. He brings a wealth of experience in Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV service delivery programme. Funded under Government and Global Fund.

Selvan holds Bachelor degree in Commerce from Mumbai University and Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource from Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai. Outside the working hours, he loves to discover and cook Indian dishes.

Hey! It's Vaness here. This is a little of my background.

I hold a bachelor degree in Fine Arts -Theatre (Acting - Directing) and been in the theatre community in Bangkok for a while then I discovered my passion for working in Non-Profit Organisation when I became an event organiser for Youth Voices Count (YVC), a youth initiative led by young LGBTIQ in Asia and Pacific in 2010 and also organised many meetings/side events later on. And also I am well known for designing and creating artworks and publications for the organisation.

By the way, I think I am the quietest person in the organisation and I am a great secret keeper because I immediately forget right after you turn away!

Don't be surprised if I don't pick up your call. The most enjoyable in my life is being away from mobile phone.

Ramil Andag is from the Philippines. Ramil has been active in the human rights and equality advocacy since becoming part of U.P. Babaylan, a LGBTQI students’ organization at the University of the Philippines Diliman. These involvements were with various organizations and under different capacities including research, advocacy, trainings and awareness raising. Presently, Ramil is the SOGIESC Rights Officer of APCOM.

Diversity, equality, respect, are some of the core values which Ramil tries to live by.

Ramil wants to eventually live by the beach with Bogart, her 9-year old dog of undetermined breed singing Whitney Houston and Madonna songs.

My name is Chatsuda Hanbang, you can call me Jam. Currently, I am working in the operation unit and a member of the event working group for APCOM Foundation. My extensive experience is related to the event organizing, logistics, administration, and project co-ordination. That’s why I also responsible to organize the monthly mental health activity, which is a special event to help relaxing the staff from working hard the whole month while improving relationship in the organization and the staff’s mental health at the same time. Apart from working full-time, I am also studying for my second Bachelor’s degree in accounting in order to improve my finance and accounting skills at work.

I am a cat person. I’ve got an aggressive but lovely one at my place too. She seems to be my beloved daughter. In my free time, my partner and I will go camping in other provinces near Bangkok. However, I mostly enjoy staying home reading some books, making handicrafts like mask straps, resin crafts, sewing clothes, and other accessories etc. Furthermore, I enjoy listening to the true crime stories and global histories on YouTube. Besides, I am addicted to craft beer because I feel it tastes better than other kinds and I also want to support small home brewery business than the big ones in Thailand. Importantly, I love eating so much. My favorites ones are papaya salad (Somtum), Mexican food, and Japanese food. Finally, “Nothing lasts forever” is the motto that I always remind myself every day so I understand how the world goes around.

I’m Tanet Vongvisitsin (Shan). I’m 41 years old. I work for APCOM Foundation as Accounting and Administrative Officer.

I’m addicted to playing video games and watching horror movies. My favorite food is Japanese food. Passing through happiness and sadness, I think that giving is the most important thing in my life. This means that it is not good to be only a receiver, a person should know how to be a giver too. I remembered when I was down to the lowest point of my life. Although I needed someone to take side and support me at that time, there was none. At the end, I could go through this situation by giving love and strength to myself. Since then, I have been trying to improve myself in every aspect that I will not go back to reach that point again. And today when I have enough of things and strength, I will also give them to support others. I believe that this support makes the world a better place for everyone. That’s why I am happy to work here for the non-profit organization, where people are giving help to people every day.

INAD QUINONES RENDON is a gay man, a person living with HIV, a lawyer, an artist, a baker, a cyclist, a writer, a storyteller, hopelessly romantic, and a part-time lover. Hailing from the Philippines and residing in Thailand, he is working with APCOM as Organisational Sustainability and Strengthening Consultant. He strengthens the organization's regional and global advocacy, key population, and community engagements and programs. These programs include creating legal environments, technical assistance to key population networks, capacity building, community monitoring, and country program review, among others.
In 2020, he developed APCOM's Community Guide to Implement Community-Based Monitoring for the Global Fund-supported multi-country program called Sustainability of HIV services for key populations in Asia (SKPA). On the same year, he led the creation of #coronaAPCOMpassion, an emergency funding mechanism to address the key populations' immediate needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he initiated a regional initiative in contextualizing the messages of U=U in Asian countries. In 2021 and 2022, he spearheaded the community engagements in the processes within PEPFAR's Country Operational Plans/Regional Operational Plans (COP/ROP). These initiatives were called #KeyPopAsiaCOP21 and #KeyPopAsiaCOP22. He produced Get. PrEP. Done. : PrEP Demand Generation Toolkit., a resource guide community organizations looking to generate demand for PrEP among their communities, with technical support from World Health Organization (WHO) and The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). He is also currently working with UNAIDS Regional Support Team Asia-Pacific under a consultancy role. As Community Expert, he is part of the team in mapping the existing community-led mechanisms at the country level and providing recommendations for more meaningful community leadership in CLM programs.

He is a member of U=U Global Community Board. The UGCB will work closely with the Prevention Access Campaign to integrate U=U into national and global HIV/AIDS responses to greatly improve the lives of people living with HIV.

He sits on MPact Global Action's Board of Directors. MPact advocates for equitable access to effective HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services for gay men and bisexual men, including those living with HIV, while promoting their health and human rights worldwide.
For Inad, there is a gap in the HIV movement and programming. He believes that we need to go beyond the awareness and knowledge and start cultivating empathy. Although theoretical knowledge in HIV is very crucial and important, HIV programs should also foster emotional understanding and achieve a certain level of empathy.

Nicky’s area of work with APCOM is mainly on HIV online interventions, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and sexualized drug use or chemsex; and with his current position as Knowledge Management and Learning, he is managing a platform aimed at providing information to communities to facilitate cross-learning and sharing with community-generated data and research. His experience with the organization included a role as technical assistance provider for demand generation initiatives in Lao PDR, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines and most recent addition to his portfolio is co-writing PrEP Demand Generation Toolkit, which has been translated into 14 languages from 9 countries. Hailing from Indonesia, Nicky previously worked at GWL-INA, a national network for MSM and transgender women which comprises more than 80 community-based organizations and support groups across the archipelago. During his tenure, he was leading 6 online digital campaigns, most notably testJKT and Gue Berani where the former is a city-based campaign for Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and the latter is a nationwide campaign implemented in more than 25 cities across the country. An avid fan of performing arts and occasional vocalist, during his spare time he really loves sipping wine while getting carried away to the melody of jazz, opera and classical music, although once in a while also grooving his way to the beat of electronic dance music (EDM) for fun.

Hi, I'm JJ and I'm half Thai-Chinese descendant who loves to blend with any other nationalities in Asia. I have my fashion design degree from Srinakarinwirot University in Bangkok. Although I have had chances to work in so many different fields during the past decade, I keep finding the ways back to art and community field. I have been working for APCOM since June 2021 on testBKK and APCOM events working group. Working here, it is quite challenging as I can push my own capacity to make sure that I learn and do things more than just contents creation and graphic design.

I used to be very productive in my free time but now I prefer resting and singing my 90's diva songs. However, when my energy is back, I am addicted to explore new art galleries and jazz bars. If possible, I will travel somewhere out of Bangkok. Furthermore, I love drawing, crafting jewelries, and managing my eco-life thingy.

Hello, I'm Nongluck Parima or you can call me by my nick name “Mod”. I'm originally from Chiang Mai. Regarding my educational background, I graduated my Bachelor’s degree in accounting from SSC Chiang Mai College of Commerce and Ramkhamhaeng University. I have been working for APCOM as a Finance Officer since November 2021. It is accepted that working here is so challenging that I am sometimes assertive and persistent when dealing with people. This is only to ensure the missions and tasks will be completed.

In my free time, I like riding on a boat around Chao Phraya River, Khlong Saen Saep. There I will spend my leisure time at the calm little café. Every time I take a trip, I feel I can free my soul with the flow of the reiver. This definitely reboots my energy and prepares myself for anything.

My name is Naphat Krutthai (Jim). My journey to the wider world of gender diversity has begun since 2008 when I went through the process of physical transformation as my heart’s calling. Later, I have discovered that LGBTQI+ in Thailand have limited rights whether in terms of work, access to welfare, state public health, or even the basic right to create their families. Therefore, I started to learn and devote myself to supporting the LGBTQI+ community through working with independent organizations in Thailand, such as SAGA Thailand, TEAK and via my page “Jim Journey”. What I do is helping them to understand and access the rights they deserve.

Recently, I have just completed my Master's degree in in Population, Sexual and Reproductive Health (International Program), at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University. This program made me understand the need for participation from all sectors to improve the quality of life and the rights of people with gender diversity, while improving my research and communication skills.

I am currently joining the APCOM Foundation as a SOGIESC Right Assistant involving in the (IM)PART project sponsored by VOICE Global. This is another good opportunity for me to understand the perspectives and the need for gender diversity inclusion in all sectors, especially in the business sector. The project’s aim, which is also my personal objective, is to lift LGBTQI+ restriction by differences in gender identity, sexual orientation, or gender expression in the workplaces.

Please call me Arm, but feel free to call me Antony.

Chulalongkorn University, Department of Arts, is where I earned my degree. For as long as I can remember, I've been preoccupied with things regarding to children and the educational system. Not until I joined this orgainzation that I realized that my true passion lay not in teaching, but in raising public awareness about vital issues like health and human rights; as a member of the MSM, this is the one cause I feel most passionate about.

When it comes to my private life, I'm all about the juicy stuff, from the playful to the dark and seductive. I adore felines and often feel like the "cat" myself but have you ever heard cat roars? Meowwwww

It's great to meet you.

My name is Suriya Phongphunngam, or you can call me by my nickname “Bobo”.

I am energetic, talkative, and friendly. I am passionate about Food, Travel, Music, and Movie. Regarding my educational background, I graduated my Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand): majoring in German and minoring in Communication Arts, while my Master’s degree is Strategic Communication from International University of Languages and Media (IULM), (Milan, Italy). My working experiences for almost a decade cover Marketing, Procurement, and Communication. In 2020, I had a first-hand opportunity to work in NGO sector as a Communication Officer for ActionAid Thailand under the EU COVID-19 Response and Recovery Project in Thailand. This project allowed me to explore how a project implemented to increase the participation of Thai civil society organizations (CSOs) working with the most vulnerable communities in Thailand in preventing, addressing, and mitigating risks and vulnerabilities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the project communication officer, I was responsible for communication management online and offline among key stakeholders and target audiences to ensure impact, relevance, effectiveness, sustainability, and visibility of the project and European Union as the donor. Throughout the project, I collected stories of change from the project’s final beneficiaries and communicate to the public. This urged people to understand how they were affected by the pandemic and how they were supported by the project to respond and recover from that situation which could inspire others, and people could also hear their voices or requests for any further assistance. Therefore, I believe that communication is a driving energy that potentially induces a positive change to the society. This personal belief also becomes one of my professional goals to work in the development field now and in the future.

Joining APCOM Foundation recently is another challenging journey to expand my ability in LGBTQIA+ rights, in which I am interested and I also advocate. Everyone including LGBTQIA+ has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Although it will not fully happen in reality soon, it can be started by at least respecting ourself and not disregarding others. Join us and support LGBTQIA+ rights together!

Hi, I am Pukar, and I am working as a Gender Equality Officer with APCOM. I am deeply passionate about protecting and strengthening the rights of vulnerable groups such as LGBTIQ+ and women.

After obtaining Bachelor’s degree in Economics from a U.S. university, I worked for a labor union in Washington D.C., where I campaigned for national labor drives and organized workers’ movements. As a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, I learned about queer and feminist theories and praxis, as well as ways of decolonizing institutions, structures, movements, and discourses.

Upon return from the U.S. to my hometown of Kathmandu, Nepal, I started working with diverse regional and local organizations, including multilateral donors, NGOs, and research institutions. My work primarily centered around highlighting challenges, barriers, and cross-cutting matrix of dominations affecting historically marginalized communities such as diverse SOGIESC minorities and migrant workers.

I like to read novels and take long naps in my spare time. Also, I love to hike and am an avid swimmer. If you have questions and want to engage in conversations regarding campaign and policy advocacy, gender equality and social inclusion, Nepal, and Taylor Swift, I am your guy!

Hello everyone! I am Natthakorn Chatsakulsri and you can call me Nat or Mill.

I love to cook, bake and travel with my family and friends. Cooking and baking allow me to share good things and spend more time with others. My favorite place is the beach because I love seafood and bikinis. I am also addicted to coffee and the rain sound since both make me feel relaxed.

I am a final-year student at Mahidol University International College, majoring in International Relations and Global Affairs. My interest in human rights issues urges me to choose APCOM for my internship. I believe that the world should be a place where we can feel free to love regardless, therefore, I joined APCOM to be a part of the positive change hoping to make the world a better place. At APCOM, I am part of the communication team. I make content, summarize documents, translate documents, take meeting notes, and do other assisting tasks.

I was warmly welcomed by the friendly staff at APCOM. The office culture here is fantastic, with a positive and supportive atmosphere that is both professional and fun. I am so happy to be a part of this amazing team!

I hope that APCOM will be one of the organizations that students would choose while looking for an excellent workplace to intern with.