Shui-Meng Ng is a Singapore National and holds a MA in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 1973, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Hawaii in 1979.
Over the span of more than 40 years, Shui-Meng Ng accumulated a broad range of experience working in different countries and in different fields.
After completing her studies, Shui-Meng Ng first worked in the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies based in Singapore as Senior Research Fellow focusing on research in population studies, gender and development, and politics and social change in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
In 1986, Shui-Meng Ng, left Singapore and moved to join her husband, Sombath Somphone, a Laotian agronomist
and development specialist, to whom she married in 1983.
After moving to Laos, Shui-Meng Ng worked mainly in the development field with several development agencies focusing on women’s development and improvement of livelihoods.
From 1989 onwards, she joined UNICEF, first working at the UNICEF Office in Laos as its Education Programme Officer. From 1996-2000 she was posted to UNICEF-China and tasked with developing women-focused poverty alleviation programs using micro-credit. She returned to UNICEF-Laos in 2000 as the Deputy Representative. From 2004 to 2008, she was assigned as UNICEF Representative in UNICEF Timor-Leste where she worked until her retirement from UNICEF at the end of 2008.
After retiring from UNICEF, Shui-Meng Ng continued to be active in the development field, working as a specialist consultant in Myanmar and Laos.
In 2012, her husband, Sombath Somphone, a respected and well-known development leader, was disappeared in Vientiane, right in front of a police post.The entire sequence of Sombath Somphone’s abduction was recorded by the Lao Police CCTV.
Since her husband’s disappearance, Shui-Meng Ng mounted a relentless campaign, inside and outside Laos, to get Sombath Somphone released and returned safely to her and her family.
She has made countless appeals to the Lao Government authorities to investigate the case and to find her husband. She also gave numerous press and media interviews, and public speeches in various international and regional fora to publicize the case of her husband’s disappearance.
In the past 6 years, she also travelled the globe tirelessly to meet with the UN agencies, Human Rights groups, and Foreign Offices of Australia, US, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Korea, Japan, and Singapore, to highlight the case of Sombath Somphone’s enforced disappearance, hoping that they would urge the Lao Government to expedite the investigation of what happened to her husband.
Together with friends and supporters of Sombath Somphone, a documentary “The Disappearance of Sombath Somphone” was completed in 2017. This film is an effort to tell the story of Sombath Somphone and his enforced disappearance, and to continue the campaign to seek truth and justice for Sombath and the family.
The documentary also to dedicated to all the victims of Enforced Disappearance is to highlight their plight and the severity of such human rights violation.
Over the span of more than 40 years, Shui-Meng Ng accumulated a broad range of experience working in different countries and in different fields.
After completing her studies, Shui-Meng Ng first worked in the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies based in Singapore as Senior Research Fellow focusing on research in population studies, gender and development, and politics and social change in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
In 1986, Shui-Meng Ng, left Singapore and moved to join her husband, Sombath Somphone, a Laotian agronomist
and development specialist, to whom she married in 1983.
After moving to Laos, Shui-Meng Ng worked mainly in the development field with several development agencies focusing on women’s development and improvement of livelihoods.
From 1989 onwards, she joined UNICEF, first working at the UNICEF Office in Laos as its Education Programme Officer. From 1996-2000 she was posted to UNICEF-China and tasked with developing women-focused poverty alleviation programs using micro-credit. She returned to UNICEF-Laos in 2000 as the Deputy Representative. From 2004 to 2008, she was assigned as UNICEF Representative in UNICEF Timor-Leste where she worked until her retirement from UNICEF at the end of 2008.
After retiring from UNICEF, Shui-Meng Ng continued to be active in the development field, working as a specialist consultant in Myanmar and Laos.
In 2012, her husband, Sombath Somphone, a respected and well-known development leader, was disappeared in Vientiane, right in front of a police post.The entire sequence of Sombath Somphone’s abduction was recorded by the Lao Police CCTV.
Since her husband’s disappearance, Shui-Meng Ng mounted a relentless campaign, inside and outside Laos, to get Sombath Somphone released and returned safely to her and her family.
She has made countless appeals to the Lao Government authorities to investigate the case and to find her husband. She also gave numerous press and media interviews, and public speeches in various international and regional fora to publicize the case of her husband’s disappearance.
In the past 6 years, she also travelled the globe tirelessly to meet with the UN agencies, Human Rights groups, and Foreign Offices of Australia, US, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Korea, Japan, and Singapore, to highlight the case of Sombath Somphone’s enforced disappearance, hoping that they would urge the Lao Government to expedite the investigation of what happened to her husband.
Together with friends and supporters of Sombath Somphone, a documentary “The Disappearance of Sombath Somphone” was completed in 2017. This film is an effort to tell the story of Sombath Somphone and his enforced disappearance, and to continue the campaign to seek truth and justice for Sombath and the family.
The documentary also to dedicated to all the victims of Enforced Disappearance is to highlight their plight and the severity of such human rights violation.