Present: Live in Nan.

Born:  1947 in Bangkok.

A social worker trained in community development, Noi Apisuk is the founder of the Empower Foundation (education means protection of women engaged in re-creation) in Bangkok, a grass roots advocacy organization focused on the rights of women working in the entertainment industry.

After graduating with degrees in Sociology and Anthropology from Thammasart University in Bangkok, Noi traveled to the United States to continue her work and study, later alternating between the US and Asia as she worked on human rights issues, taught school in northern Thailand, and worked at the South East Asia Resource Center in New York. In 1984, she returned home to Bangkok and began working with women in the sex industry, founding Empower. Empower now encompasses a school of adult education and alternative training for employment and a legal assistance unit for sex workers in Bangkok, and a social service center and health clinic in the northern cities of Chiangmai, Chiangrai and in the southern city of Phuket. Since its beginning as a one-woman operation focused exclusively on educating sex workers, Empower has expanded its capacity and now educates the general Thai public about prostitution and HIV/AIDS prevention, striving to reduce discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.

Noi has received a number of honors in recognition of her work, including

“It Works” award form Norwegian government in 1990, a scholarship from Harvard Law School for International Human Rights training in 1997, and the “Outstanding Social Worker” award, in 2000, from the Social Welfare Department of Thailand’s Ministry of Social and Labor Affairs.  

Recently, apart of her work, empower received “Human Rights Award” in 2006 as the outstanding organization committed in fighting for sex workers rights from the commission on Human Rights in Thailand. 

In 2009, an international award “Freedom to Create Prize” was given to “The Journey of Kumjing” a social interactive art to promote human rights of migrants, co-created with Chumpon Apisuk and with hundreds of migrants women in the northern border of Thailand. The project has brought over 250 hand made papier-machet dolls, travel by land, and by air to many countries around the world.  

Noi married with Chumpon Apisuk an international performance artist founded ASIATOPIA, Asian artist network in Thailand.

Has a daughter, Pirapa Apisuk, Kwan, a pianist and music teacher played with the CARAVAN in concerts.