Resilient. Powerful. Inspiring.
The youths are the backbone of every society. This year’s International Youth Day theme is YOUTH ENGAGEMENT FOR GLOBAL ACTION.
Meaningful youth engagement is central to the success of policies and programmes aimed at improving young people’s health and wellbeing.
The future of a society is largely dependent on the qualities of its youths. Youths play a vital role in the constructive process of building social cohesion, economic prosperity and political stability in a nation in an inclusive and democratic way. Empowering them and equipping them with the right opportunities can create endless array of possibilities, especially in the time of crisis.
ChangeMakr Asia have chosen to highlight Five inspirational youth movements around Asia – all are working to create engagement in which encourage positive change and #shapingourfuturetogether.
What about you ? Who inspire you and why ? Share in the comments below and spread the word on your networks.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
1. RUMAH CAPER – Indonesia
Challenge
According to UNICEF, Indonesia has the eighth highest absolute number of children marriage in the world – 1,459,000.
Whether by the reasons of poverty, social norms or ignorance, child marriage have remained legal and normalized for far too long and become intergenerational.
Solution
Initiated by a university student , Budi Santoso, in 2016 ; Rumah Caper (set out to to take a stand against child marriage in his hometown of Asahan, North Sumatra.
Two years after he started an initiative called Rumah Caper, he has reached out to approximately 500 youths, with 30 volunteers currently in the roster. Rumah Caper is working to build children and adolences self-esteem, promote formal education and teach valuable skills.
“The issue of child marriage is widely talked about in big cities, but it is a reality in the village where I come from. My own cousin got married at 17, and when she should have been playing or studying, she had to take care of her household and children“
2. Unbagged.my – Malaysia
Unbagged is a zero waste grocery delivery service. It is a student run project under Wasteless in collaboration with A Bit Less Bulk Store that aims to improve the accessibility of a zero-waste lifestyle and promote a circular economy.
3. Yein Udaan – Chennai, India
The name “Yein Udaan” is an amalgamation of two languages – Tamil (‘Yein’ meaning ‘My’) and Hindi (‘Udaan’ meaning ‘Takeoff’). Founded by a young changer maker, Vedika Agarwal, Yein Udaan was conceived as an after-school community center to provide continuous training in academic, cultural, and sports activities to children in Chetpet’s Dhobi Khana community, located in central Chennai.
Yein Udaan aims to work on the holistic development of underprivileged children, by providing them with academic and extra-curricular training and believe that building a skill-set, independent of academic features will help children grow into confident and self-aware individuals. By forming partnerships with established individuals and groups in the city, our goal is to bridge the opportunity gap found between privileged and underprivileged children.
Yein Udaan hopes to provide such opportunities to children in several communities across Chennai, and beyond.
4. AYO Social Enterprise – Singapore
AYO Social Enterprise focus on youth development, to solve the vertical social mobility issues and improve the current socioeconomic status of youth in Southeast Asia.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Singapore. The organisation aims to increase the social mobility of Singaporean and ASEAN youth. Supported by raiSE and ASEAN Youth Organization.
Through investing in the areas of youth entrepreneurship, youth development and provide a platform for youths to work with organisations to solve real-world problems. This enables us to develop youths with the necessary competencies to navigate the complex ASEAN economy. Our work is supported by our strong partnership with local organisations such as the ASEAN Youth Organization (A.Y.O) which allows us to develop localised solutions.
5. Asia Pacific Youth Exchange – Manila, Philippines
APYE is composed of global youth-led movements which aim to engage young people in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiatives across Asia Pacific. The two-week long program engages (1) Leadership Development Training (2) Local Immersion and (3) Asia Pacific Youth Conference.
Among these three main programs, the major output of APYE is generation of project and policy proposals to problems observed in the immersion sites. Selected proposals will be presented in ADB and conceptualized through the help of local partners of the UYA.
