| Hakim Hayat |
MEMBERS of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) will lead the largest day of youth service in the region dubbed ‘YOUnified’ on December 3, 2016 by organising youth-led community projects simultaneously, with four local youth leading four inspirational community projects in the country.
To mark the third anniversary of the United States Government’s signature programme YSEALI, its Bruneian members Pengiran Mas Dino binti Pengiran Radin Hanafi, Awangku Mohamad Izwan Shafuan bin Pengiran Md Daud, Norhayatunajibah binti Haji Kifli and Muhammad Firdaus bin Haji Ismail will lead different projects on the day with the help of over 100 volunteers, focusing on different community-building and youth empowerment projects that support various agendas.
All four members shed more light about their respective projects to the media at the US Embassy in Brunei Darussalam yesterday.
Farm Up Your Life! A Farm School Project
Pengiran Mas Dino, a YSEALI alumna from generation EARTH 2015, who is currently leading a school farming programme called ‘Farm Up Your Life! A Farm School Project’, said as part of a continuation of the project, she is organising a day-trip for the students to a family-run farm in the Tutong District to give them a better understanding and hands on experience on farming techniques.
Her project, which was initiated with some 100 students from a private primary school, focuses on teaching students in school about sustainable food systems, waste management, environmental stewardship and nutrition through an experiential-learning approach.
She said the inspiration for the project came from her recent visit to Cambodia, where she had the opportunity to learn more about farming techniques in rural areas from a friend. “We, however, tailored it to a more urban method to suit the school environment the students are in,” she explained.
As Brunei aims to achieve self-sustainability and sufficiency in food production, she said that inculcating the basic knowledge in our young generation will help them attain useful life skills and help them value the importance of food security and self-sustainability in food production.
“Food security has always been an issue here and we are still not vulnerable due to the fact that we import 80 per cent of our food products,” she said.
Pengiran Mas Dino said she seeks to continue expanding the project to more schools in future with the help of the Ministry of Education, and specifically through its Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre, and inspire a generation of empowered and sustainable leaders.
Awangku Mohamad Izwan Shafuan bin Pengiran Md Daud, Pengiran Mas Dino binti Pengiran Radin Hanafi, Norhayatunajibah binti Haji Kifli and Muhammad Firdaus bin Haji Ismail, members of the YSEALI alumni, receiving their YOUnified T-Shirts from Catherine Muller, Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Brunei Darussalam. – HAKIM HAYAT
Integral Learning for Children with Autism, Access to Education
A YSEALI Academic Fellowship alumnus, Awangku Mohamad Izwan Shafuan, will lead a project that seeks to create a networking platform for educators, NGOs, government departments, the private sector and others in order to empower teachers to better understand and teach autistic children.
He said his project will be launched next week at the charity organisation for special needs individuals of Pusat Ehsan and a host of activities have been lined up on that day for the special needs individuals. The highlight of his project will be a workshop scheduled in February next year in collaboration with Pusat Ehsan and online consultation platform Autism Advocates Brunei, which will see experts including those from outside the country conducting workshops for teachers. “We want to create a better understanding and awareness about autism here because as far as we are concerned, not many people know this… for instance some people can’t event define autistic children from children with down’s syndrome… we are trying to create much exposure,” he added.
He also said that many autistic children in the country are not being taught properly, causing frustrations among parents, teachers and the children themselves and highlighted that intervention methods can be costly.
“Through this project, we will try to equip teachers and even parents with the right skills on managing autistic children and its intervention. We hope that these teachers will have a better understanding so they could work better with autistic children,” he added.
Stories of Migrants: Dialogue and Exhibition
Norhayatunajibah, a YSEALI Professional Fellowship alumna, will embark on a project that will highlight issues surrounding migration and human trafficking in the country on December 3 at the i-Centre, giving the public a better perspective on their stories of migration.
The event will feature a dialogue session which will serve as a platform for res-pective government agencies to interact with young people to gain more perspective on issues of migration and human trafficking.
Norhayatunajibah will also launch the Stories of Migrants Journal during the event, where she hopes to see more “natural conversations” between locals and migrant workers. “In our society we always think that migrant workers are invisible – they are there but sadly we don’t talk to them and we don’t know their story… this will be an excellent platform to find out their life stories and journey,” she explained.
An exhibition will also be held which will feature a replica of migrant workers’ quarters. “This replica will of course not represent the whole migrant community but our main message here is to show how it feels to live as a migrant – the costs and conditions of living and we will also be sharing some footage and audios,” she shared, adding that the event will allow multiple interactive sessions.
Beach Clean Up and Tree Planting Project
Muhammad Firdaus, also a YSEALI Professional Fellowship alumnus, in collaboration with Green Brunei will host a project called ‘Care For The Ocean’ that will see beach clean-up and tree planting activities, followed by a group discussion on creative ways the youth can help protect and conserve the environment.
Taking place at the Marine Biodiversity Centre, the project will see workshops for young children on handling turtles, learning its different species and also talks on ocean conservation by the Heart of Borneo initiative and other discussions about ways to contribute to the society through the environment.
US Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Craig Allen stated that the YSEALI YOUnified Project portrays the spirit of unity among young people across Southeast Asia, and shows their desire to give back to their societies through community projects. “Every day, and today in particular, we’re seeing young people take the lead in making the world we live in a better place, one step at a time,” he added.
The YSEALI YOUnified celebration encourages young people to be civically engaged and demonstrate the power of youth to develop solutions to pressing local, national and regional issues.
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