It was during my University days that I was first exposed to sexual violence. I was part of a social action mission led by the National University of Singapore. It was called Project Akriti and we flew to the city of Kolkata in India to work with Sanlaap, an NGO which has been combating the trafficking of women and children since 1987.

Kolkata is a sprawling, culture-rich city and it is also home to some of the largest red-light districts in the world. For a whole month the team of Project Akriti was helping renovate a Youth Centre and providing language lessons and basic computer facilities for the children of sex workers. During that period, I was living amongst many underprivileged, under-served girls and women rescued from the prostitution trade, listening and documenting their stories. That experience made a huge impact on the way I perceived life.

Fast forward to 2021, I joined a couple of my friends from the UAE to launch BRAVA NFT, a mission-focused project. Globally, 35% of women have experienced either physical, sexual or psychological harm at some point in their lives. In some countries, like Mexico (where Nahual, the BRAVA artist is from), this number is as high as 70% and is on the rise.

Many women (and men), regardless of their educational and cultural backgrounds, often find it challenging to disclose the assault they've gone through. This comes down to many reasons - upbringing, societal impositions, fear of reprisal, shame, emotional pain, and so much more.

BRAVA NFT, through its strong yet fun and futuristic PFP characters, strives to make these conversations easier to have, even with children. The project has also partnered with charity organizations and holds global events via the BRAVA Soldier Program to get help for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and preventing such incidents from happening in the first place.

We are also creating workshops to help change age-old perceptions of love and relationships so that we can collectively break out of this cycle of trauma, for ourselves and future generations.

I’m all for balancing out gender equity in the Web3 space. Traditionally, financial sectors like banking, investment, real estate etc have been male-dominated. So when crypto and NFTs were seen as a novel way to make money, naturally, more men quickly jumped on board, hence today's Web3 space is male-dominated.

We can't just keep seeing Web3 as a space for investors. It's bigger than that. For Web3 to grow and reach the mainstream, we need communities, and communities need nurturing, bringing people together, motivating, encouraging storytelling, and more importantly, presenting complex concepts in a consumer-friendly way to a mass audience.

I don't think of this as community building; I see it as nurturing because you can't say, “Hey, come and join the community,” and then leave it at that. You need to communicate and understand everyone’s needs and come up with solutions that resonate with them. This means less advertising and more listening to people's stories, making them feel heard and that they're part of something important. And that's where you need the women's touch. I’m not making this up. A 2016 55,000-person study conducted across 90 countries, found that women outperformed men in 11 out of 12 emotional competence skills. And, that’s why women are so crucial in the Web3 space.

I studied Psychology at the University, and I hold a Diploma in Digital Film Making. I was writing and producing documentaries and TV shows in Singapore before I went on to set up 11 radio stations around Asia. And, then, I spent about 5 years in Advertising. I enjoyed every job I did because I love listening to people, and telling stories; I love the challenge of simplifying complicated concepts, so the NFT space was a natural next-step for me.

On top of leading BRAVA NFT, I work as the Chief of Marketing for Decentology, an organization that helps more developers build Web3 applications quickly and easily. I’m the Community Guild Lead for NftyDreams DAO, a Web 3 collective on a mission to empower creators. I’m also building a DAO with a team of friends to connect talents to Web3 projects and organizations.

I’m excited about onboarding as many people as I can to Web3, particularly from the advertising and broadcasting sectors. I’ve seen my colleagues in these industries plug away to build someone else’s dream. I want to show them that they can work on their own dream.

If you've got the imagination, then there is a spot for you in Web3 where you create, own, make a living, and maybe even create generational wealth.

Relevant Twitter handles: @cryptodragonis | @bravanft | @decentology | @NftyDreams