Last year, Zetty Rania Mohamad Yusof made headlines when she and her student activist friends submitted a memorandum to the government demanding that liquid nicotine be put back into the Poisons Act 1952.
The idea for the initiative was born and made possible at a retreat organised by Architects of Diversity (AoD), a civil society organisation that runs programmes aimed at creating young leaders who will champion inclusiveness and equality.
“They gave us the seed funds to kickstart the initiative, the space to brainstorm and execute it, and the networking to get wide buy-in from other youths,” said the computer and information engineering student from International Islamic University Malaysia.“Kampus Advokasi helped me see it through. If I had started without them, it might not have gone as far as a memorandum,” said Zetty on one of the flagship programmes in AoD’s stable.
At Sekolah Diversiti, teenagers learn about equality, inclusivity and diversity. — Photos courtesy of AoD
DEI retreats for teens
Starting in 2018 with just a one-off programme, AoD has now grown into a full-fledged non-governmental organisation that runs retreats and camps almost every month, according to the group’s 2023 annual report.
The first flagship programme is Sekolah Diversiti, a five-day retreat where 16- and 17-year-olds learn about the importance of diversity, equality and inclusivity (DEI).
Currently, 50% of its participants are from outside the Klang Valley, including Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu, and have different racial, religious and socio-economic backgrounds, said AoD co-founder and executive director Jason Wee.Facilitators would assign participants to different groups to maximise interaction and communication among youth who would have otherwise very little contact with peers from different communities, he said.
Through workshops, simulations, games and discussions, participants explore topics such as identity and diversity, conflict and inclusion, and being civil in online spaces.
According to its annual report, surveys on participants before and after these retreats showed that they grew more confident with – among other things – responding to acts of racism or discrimination, raising awareness about the oppression of minority groups and challenging individuals who display intolerance.
Advocacy for all
Another programme is Kampus Advokasi, where student activists from universities and colleges join retreats to learn how to be better advocates and leaders in the democratic process through a lens of diversity and inclusion.“We expanded from secondary school students to university students as for many youth, this is where they interact with people of different races and learn about democracy.
(From left) Wee is AoD’s co-founder and executive director, while Yasmin is its communications manager.
“It’s also where attitudes towards racial politics and the government are born,” said Wee.Stronger through faith
Realising the centrality of religion in public life and how it shapes attitudes, AoD started its Interfaith Youth Alliance, specifically for young leaders from the nation’s diverse faiths.
“We try to get as diverse a collection of groups as possible and choose a young leader from each organisation to join a retreat where we talk about specific topics on faith and issues such as differences and how to find common ground in managing different beliefs,” said AoD communications manager Yasmin Hanis.
Although interfaith gatherings are nothing new, they usually only involve elders and top leaders of each group and during major celebrations such as Chinese New Year and Christmas, she said.
“We realised there was no neutral platform for youth to get together and converse, so we started one this year,” she said.One participant is Eow Shiang Yen, whose expanded network through the alliance helped him organise his own interfaith meet.
“We held a terrarium-making workshop, which transitioned into an interfaith discussion.
“We started with something fun to break the ice and transitioned smoothly into the discussion as we were already comfortable with each other,” said Eow, secretary-general of Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia.
Perpetual work in progress
Eow’s follow-up activity is another hallmark of AoD’s programmes, where participants are encouraged to go out and continue their advocacy.
“We don’t just hold a programme and then everyone goes back to their (regular) lives. “We want them to be continuously involved with projects within the larger world. We train youth leaders to be engaged, follow through, go out and become advocates themselves,” said Wee.
Support from AoD could include seed-funding, a venue to hold a programme, connections to experts and resource persons, training on how to manage conflict and deal with the media, and guides on how to plan and carry out initiatives, he said.
AoD aims to keep focusing on developing this after-programme support while maintaining the current number of retreats.
“We want to develop an ecosystem to empower youth groups and be able to sustain it.
“That’s why we have been promoting webinars such as how to write a press statement or a grant proposal – we all need to continue learning how to do these things,” said Wee.
“Ultimately, AoD wants to help fuel the virtuous cycle that drives mature and just democracies.
“We create strong leaders who then create strong laws; strong laws also create strong leaders.”
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