Global attention on the Youth Engagement Summit 2009 highlights the gathering of global icons and business leaders. But underneath the surface, YES2009 is also the pinnacle of a grassroots movement which is sweeping Southeast Asia at this very moment.
SEAchange is an ongoing mobilisation of young individuals across Southeast Asia who collectively believe that they can make a difference in their own lives, their communities, and their countries.
This movement brings together major universities, youth organisations and online communities across the region to inspire, support and celebrate a generation of doers – a new breed of youths who see the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and band together to take action.
SEAchange’s first programme is a regional survey done to highlight the voice of the youth, called the SEAchange Youth Report. More than 30,000 youths between the ages of 15 to 35 told their story:
- What change do they want to see in their personal lives… right now?
- What change do they want to see in their community and country in the next five years?
- What change campaigns, or ideas, would they support?
In line with the youth engagement objectives of the YES2009, the results of this report make a debut there as a first step for the youth to directly help and guide leaders in business, media, and government with policy-making and engaging more effectively with the youth. 500 youths who contributed to the report are also flown in from across the region to be part of the YES2009 event itself.
YES2009 is then telecasted ‘live’ to all the biggest universities in Southeast Asia, and online as well, which will create an unprecedented level of youth engagement where a large number of leaders get exposed to the voices of previously unheard youth in Southeast Asia.
The collective efforts of the YES2009 organisers in engaging the youths behind the SEAchange movement is the perfect example of how connecting with a region of youth can change everything.
The Story of Southeast Asian Youth
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
It was a quote used by the Obama campaign, but it echoes throughout the world – a world where 6.7 billion people on earth are collaborating and competing for better quality of life. And in this world, there are 200 million of us in Southeast Asia. Young. Aged between 15 and 35 years old. Energetic. Restless, and ready for a change.
A change for our jobs. Our education. Our future.
And we’ve decided to do something about it.
Over the past month, over 120 universities, colleges, online communities, student organisations, business leaders, and global change icons have been driving this forward, all for YES2009.
We are stepping up to be active participants, and genuine contributors to change. But we can’t do this without you.
We know problems arise when we don’t make full effort to make ourselves heard, and when leaders don’t stop to listen. This causes a lack of engagement with the youth.
This is why countries face a leadership succession crisis. This is why change isn’t always easy.
In spite of that, we know the even bigger truth about change.
It is unstoppable.
The burning desire and collective actions we take in our quest for a better life. A better country. A better world. This we know, will overcome all obstacles.
This is our story.
Movements can only be created by the power of many
In the past year keen observers have watched unlikely “leaders” rise from virtually nowhere to achieve incredible, real changes all over the world by using commonplace technologies among the next generation.
From thousands of Vietnamese youths giving out free hugs across campuses, led by a 19 year old girl behind her laptop, to twelve million people in Columbia marching the streets for a change in public opinion, organised in one month by an unemployed engineer on his computer… This is just the beginning.
While people do not always know their names, most know their Twitter hash tags. Their Facebook profiles. Their YouTube videos.
More importantly, you can feel their impact.
The individuals who create these 21st century movements rarely acknowledge the scale of their influence and the real impact of their ideas when released to the world.
These groups are the future of civil society, yet they do not have a mechanism to support, train and empower the leaders that own a URL instead of an office; Facebook group members instead of staff, and Twitter hash tags instead of a marketed brand name.
The SEAchange movement is one such a movement. From a simple idea, in merely three weeks, the SEAchange movement has snowballed to over
All of which results in
A closer look at the people behind the movement
Do the youth look to people in positions for leadership? Or do they look to their peers and their passion? The following examples are true stories from the lives of the youth involved in the organising of the SEACHANGE movement behind YES2009:
In Indonesia
Can Indonesian children be active contributors to society? A small group of high school students believe the answer is yes. As a result, the Indonesian Critical Children Community and Indonesian Children Forum were founded to increasing the participation of children in solutions to issues, organising nationwide events and multiple projects to the cause. With the very same team, he put together a task force of 30 youth leaders to rally massive Indonesian participation for the SEACHANGE Youth Report without any use of traditional media. The founder, Iman is 17 years old, and and the President of Indonesia gave him the Indonesian Young Leader Award in 2008 for his work.
How did he do it? He believed there was more to life than his studies. And he did something about it.
In Vietnam
In the past 2 years, the youth of Vietnam saw a wave of change. There was Free Hugs Vietnam – a network of 200 active youth community organisers across the country who put together some of the largest youth activities on various campuses. There was also Vietnam’s Twitter Community and opensource technology and social media meetups. Amidst this wave of change was a 19-year-old girl named Chip, who led all of this by blogging about her ideas.
SEAchange reached thousands of youth in Vietnam because Chip and her friends told their friends, who told their friends…
In Malaysia
A website called YouthSays.com started as a simple idea of making the voice of young people heard, but in just over a year, grew to a vehicle for businesses and governments to get advice and ideas from 200,000 youths. This platform now powers the SEAchange movement, and has been instrumental in organising the country’s largest youth festivals – twice. The founding team behind YouthSays.com is Youth Asia, whose team is all under the age of 28, and they continue to believe that every little action from any young person can make a collective difference.
In Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myannmar, Brunei… stories like this are spread across Southeast Asia. As you chat over coffee breaks at the Youth Engagement Summit 2009, you’ll hear from youths from every country, and know what change means, through their eyes.
What does the SEAchange Youth Report tell us?
Instead of merely requesting change from their leaders, most youth pledged for changes in themselves and/or their peers and community.
29 percent want changes in themselves such as time management, developing confidence, positive personality, and learning more.
13.6 percent mentioned changes in their relationship with family such as appreciating and spending more time with family.
11.6 percent mentioned changes in their wealth such as earning more money and finding better paying jobs.
A whopping 43.4 percent mentioned changes in its people such as no more discrimination and racism, greater respect for each other, more open mindset and a desire to understand one another more.
18.4 percent mentioned changes in its education system such as revamping traditional education systems and creating more conducive and creative learning systems.
17.3 percent desire programs that lead to greater engagement with youth such as youth initiative programs, youth empowerment, youth activities and campaigns.
25.5 percent mentioned environmental issues such as saving the environment from global warming, more environmental efforts, and greater environmental awareness.
The above is a snapshot from the survey, which was still in progress at the time of printing. The full report is now available on: http://www.youthsays.com/seachange