Youths are not the leaders of the future. They are the leaders of today. The young people at the recent Youth Engagement Summit (YES2009) are out to make a difference, and they want to do it now.

Education for all

Student Shobana Nair Saseedharan and her teammates envisioned a plan to improve the literacy rate among poor Indonesian children, and pitched their idea Children Behind Us at the recent Microsoft Innovative Students Conference 2009. They won some funding to translate their idea into reality.

Shobana worked closely with her teammate Indonesian Iman Usman who promised to source for volunteers for their project. They are both representatives of TakingITGlobal, an online international youth organisation.

Her team also struck a partnership with the British International School, that allows them to use their curriculum for Mathematics and English.

”If everything goes well down this end, we might extend our reach to Thailand’s slums and Malaysia’s rural areas.”

Fighting for rights

There is a school in the Philippines that dismisses students who does not measure up in their masculinity.

Such discriminations bother social worker Gibby Gorres, 22, who is working to counter such injustices towards students.

”There is a lot of discrimination. This all-boys school has a masculinity entrance exam,” relates Gibby who is an active member of the Student Council Alliance of Philippines (SCAP) that campaigns for accessible education for all students.

He is also involved in the effort to get the Congress in the Philippines to pass bills that benefit youths.

SCAP has also been conducting voter’s education campaigns in various universities to prepare students for the general election in Philippines next year.

”Balloting will be electronic next year, and if an error is made, the vote will be void. If one out of ten votes become void, that would be tens of thousands voters not having their say,” says Libby.

Empowering Site

Indonesian teenagers Rafika Primadesti, 17, and Stephanie Hardjo, 18, believe that their peers need to be aware of current issues. They have just founded Indonesian Future Leader to gather Indonesian youths who care for their country and want to make positive changes within their community.

Indonesian Future Leaders is built to be a site of youth empowerment, a place to share knowledge and to build their potential as leaders.

Their future plans include providing tuition for poor students.

Rafika and Stephanie are proof that no matter how young you are, all you need is passion to make change happen.

Preserving arts

Nguyen Duc Long (pic) is currently involved with the Vietnam Student Chapter to help Vietnamese children, especially those from poor families and remote areas, to get basic education.

”I’m also the deputy director of a project called Back to Basic. The objective of this programme is to teach children how to make Vietnamese traditional toys like Chun chung (balancing dragonfly),” said Nguyen, 17.

This project helps teach children the traditional art and preserve it in the long run.

”We are also trying to get local traditional craftsmen to help,” he said.

Nguyen is glad that he attended YES2009. ”I want to learn more ways to make a ”change” in my country, community and myself. I believe meeting new people with new ideas will help my ideas grow as well.”

BRATs on duty

SANDRA TAN, TRISTAN TOH, KHONG CHI CHUNG, SARA KHONG, CHRISTINE LIM worked overtime to report on YES2009. Read their personal accounts on the event (here and here) and head on to R.AGE’s Facebook Fanpage to check out more YES2009 photos.