Youth Empowerment
Grace is So Beautiful
Last Updated (Thursday, 27 May 2021 19:09)
‘Grace is So Beautiful’ Flower Festival
What do you get when ‘gratitude’, ‘fruits of the Spirit’ and ‘commitment’ are combined? You get a flower festival which glorifies God’s faithfulness.
‘Grace is So Beautiful’ is one of the YMCAHK’s fund-raising efforts to fulfill its commitment towards the Child Development Fund’s BOSS project, which matches students from underprivileged families with mentors, to walk alongside with them to achieve targeted savings, formulate personal development plans and realise dreams.
Inspired by this meaningful project, Ms Lily Yau, the YMCAHK’s flower arrangement instructor gave what God has endowed her with – a talent to create amazing flower arrangements. At the Festival, she created 10 captivating floral pieces; each titled after the 9 fruits of the Spirit and with the final piece named after the event ‘Grace is So Beautiful’.
The floral pieces, sponsored by 10 generous donors, were displayed at the YMCAHK’s atrium from May 7 to 9 to celebrate Mother’s Day. Fresh carnations and Ms Yau’s flower arrangement albums were sold at the event as well.
Global Youth Summit
GLOBAL YOUTH SUMMIT (GYS)
The Global Youth Summit was held virtually on April 22-23, 2021 led by 6 Big organizations: World YMCA, World YWCA, SCOUTS, WAGGGS, IFRC, DofE, together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation). The virtual event was a platform where youths can share their opinion freely and discuss the issues, learn and have more knowledge. It aims to convene young people from different parts of the world and discuss issues, concerns and solutions to take an active part in pandemic recovery. There were about 150 YMCA young leaders who joined the event via online platform JUNO and over 1000 live attendees – and thousands more were following live-streaming. From APAY five (5) young professionals attended the summit from: The Philippines ( Rogelyn D. Razon, Lester Dellosa), Mongolia (Tungalan Ganbaatar and Urangoo Khongorzul), Hong Kong ( Siu Ting Cheung) and rest of the members joined the live-streaming.
GYS also aims to hear and be inspired with the initiatives made by the young people from the local, national and global level. This event opened and gave workshops to enable young people to be an expert and educate others too and by engaging the youth to build networking possibilities.
‘Interfaith Partnership for Sustainable Development Goals: Organizing and Mobilization of Youth’: UN ESCAP Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2021 Side Event
Last Updated (Friday, 26 March 2021 13:20)
As part of the Asia Civil Society Partnership for Sustainable Development, the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs and the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) Pax Romana Asia Pacific were given an opportunity to co-organize a side event during the UN ESCAP Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2021. The side event entitled, ‘Interfaith Partnership for Sustainable Development Goals: Organizing and Mobilization of Youth’, was held last 24 March at 4:30-6:00PM Bangkok Time and was attended by around 60 participants.
The opening rites included a greeting from Nam Boo Won, APAY General Secretary, a welcome remark from Law Lap Man, Lay Chaplain, IMCS and a brief event overview from Cristina Miranda, APAY Executive Secretary for Programs.
The side event featured three (3) young panellists who shared their experience on interfaith and ecumenical collaboration in the areas of peace building, protection of indigenous people and engagement in interfaith dialogue. The youth panellists and the topic shared are indicated below:
• "Indigenous Youth Engagement in Climate Change Action
By: Toni Matthew, Young enthusiastic Human Rights Activist from the Garo Indigenous peoples of Plainland, Bangladesh; Former Vice-President, Bangladesh Indigenous Student Action Council; Part of Organizing Secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Youth Forum (BIYF); Leads Youth Platform of Indigenous Youth in Bangladesh; Focal Person of the Asian Indigenous Youth Platform (AIYP) on Land Rights and Environment
• Interfaith Partnership on Peace Building
By: Tirmizy Abdullah, Associate Professor, Mindanao State University-Marawi; Director, Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM); Alumni APAY ICF School of Peace
• "Youth Engaged in Interfaith Dialogue"
By: Christania Paruntu, Head of Health Department, Central Committee of Catholic University Student Association of Indonesia (PMKRI)
APAY organizes Side Event for UN-ESCAP Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD)
Last Updated (Wednesday, 03 March 2021 15:19)
The Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs in partnership with the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) will be organizing a side event during the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) that is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP). The forum is the annual and inclusive intergovernmental forum and a regional platform for supporting countries, in particular those with special needs, in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development while serving as a regional preparatory meeting to the high-level political forum.
The APAY-IMCS side event that is entitled ‘Inter-Faith Partnership for Sustainable Development Goals: Organizing and Mobilization of Youth’ will be held virtually on 24 March 2021 at 4:30-6:00PM (Bangkok Time Zone). The regional conversation will specifically highlight the importance partnership for SDGs among ecumenical and inter-faith youth movements in forging regional solidarity towards reducing inequalities in the areas of learning/education, opportunities for jobs and livelihoods, peace building, access to health care; and the cross cutting dimension of environmental sustainability and gender equality. APAY and IMCAs are keen to work earnestly in making sure that no one is left behind and in particular that ‘no youth is left behind' during this pandemic and in a post-COVID19 society.
Committee on Youth Participation and Leadership Development Elected New Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson
APAY Congratulates Stephanie Cheung of YMCA of Hong Kong and Daniel Cheong of YMCA of Penang, Malaysia for being elected as Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, respectively, of the Committee on Youth Participation and Leadership Development during its election held on 10 December 2020.
Cheung Siu Ting, popularly known as Stephanie, is a volunteer and leader from the YMCA of Hong Kong. She started her journey as a participant of the Youth Leadership Program (YLP), one of the after-school youth programs organized by the YMCA of Hong Kong for secondary school students. Since then she continued her journey with the YMCA by becoming an active alumnus of the YLD programs and one of the Change Agents (3rd Cohort) that led her representation of Asia and Pacific to the Change Agent Task Force 2018. She also joins various regional and world youth events such as 2018 APAY Regional Training, 2018 Change Agent Global gathering, 2019 APAY Youth Assembly and General Assembly and 2018 World Council.
Similarly, Daniel Cheong is a volunteer of YMCA of Penang in Malaysia and is serving his local YMCA on various capacities. He is also part of Change Agent Cohort 3 and has participated in the APAY 4th Youth Assembly and APAY 20th General Assembly.
Together with the members of the Committee and APAY, these young leaders envision strengthened youth participation and leadership development in the YMCA through the youth’s active role in addressing social issues in their respective communities.
It may be recalled that the election of the Committee Chair and Vice-Chair was postponed last July 2020 Executive Committee meeting in the hope that the upcoming ECM could be held face-to-to-face. Due however to the uncertainties brought about by COVID19 on travel restrictions and gathering of people, the APAY Board agreed to proceed with the election through a virtual meeting.
By Maria Cristina L. Miranda
Executive Secretary
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