Izah Azahari
The virtual Brunei-Korea 2020 Youth Exchange Programme at the Youth Centre in the capital by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), through the Department of Youth and Sports and the Korea Youth Work Agency (KYWA) was held on October 31 and yesterday and will be held again on November 14.
The Brunei-Korea Youth Exchange Programme 2020 began with the opening ceremony last weekend where Assistant Minister of the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Gender, Equality and Family (Youth and Family Policy Office) Yoon Hyo Shik, as a representative of the KYWA delivered a speech.
Thirty participants from Brunei Darussalam and 10 from the Republic of Korea are involved in the exchange programme, comprising young people from youth associations and institutions of technical studies, aged between 16 and 19.
Themed ‘Far in Distance, Close at Heart’, the programme includes familiarisation sessions, cultural exchanges, group dialogues, topic presentations and sharing sessions.
The annual event is conducted in a virtual environment, providing the participants the opportunity to discuss the effects of COVID-19 in their daily lives. The programme is one of the existing few which explore ‘virtual’ as a new norm.
The programme is also aimed at providing an opportunity for the participants to share their experiences and thoughts on pre-, current and post-COVID-19 challenges, while enhancing cooperation between the two countries.
