Being Young, Being Malaysian: Your Voice

My name is Beth and I’m an Australian intern at PT Foundation, working in the communications and advocacy team. I’m also 20 years old and passionate about young people making change.

Living in Malaysia I have learnt a lot about cultural differences. Learning these differences is one of the most exciting aspects about living in a different country. Not to mention the delicious Malaysian food and lovely Malaysian hospitality.

Recently, I’ve become particularly interested in a very specific cultural difference. That is, the different relationship young people have to the rest of society in Malaysia compared to what I’m familiar with in Australia.

This interest was spurred by a forum for young people I attended last weekend on the topic of Unity in Malaysia. The forum was very interesting and had a number of well known and extremely knowledgeable guest speakers. Each speaker had their own perspective on the issue of unity and I definitely appreciated learning from each of them. Note, however, that each speaker was aged 30 and above.

Out of five hours (how long the forum went for) the young people in the audience were given only 15 minutes to speak to each other. From my experience with youth organizations in Australia and working at PT Foundation, it has become clear to me that peer-to-peer sharing is one of the most effective ways to learn. I was disappointed that the ‘youth’ forum ‘focusing on young people’ and ‘youth leadership’ did not involve more of this peer-to-peer education.

How do you feel being a young person in Malaysia? Are you given the opportunities you want to make a difference in Malaysia, and in the world? Please leave your comments below! I would love to hear and learn from you.

If you’re aged between 18-30 and are interested in making a difference on HIV/AIDS, please contact beth@ptfmalaysia.org to learn more about young people in PT Foundation.