“We are all different, which is great because we are all unique. Without diversity life would be very boring.” — Catherine Pulsifer
In line with our practices to celebrate diversity, 2 lecturers, Siti Sarah and Audrey Linda Fernando and 15 students participated in the 5th Diversity & Inclusion Youth Camp that was held from the 24th – 27th April at UTM, Johor. The camp’s main objective was to nurture students into becoming future moderate global citizens by increasing their awareness of diversity, imparting skills to them and providing them with the tools and frameworks in a supportive environment. In order to achieve the goals of diversity and Inclusion, the Camp involved students in processes that helped them examine their own assumptions, stereotypic outlooks, and prejudices, and encouraged the values of mutual acceptance, appreciation, respect, and understanding among the participants with the hope that the message will continue to spread long after the Camp is over. The Diversity & Inclusion Youth Camp hopes to make our youth a generation that promotes diversity, inclusion, and moderation so as to make Malaysia and its neighboring countries in ASEAN region, a warm and understanding society.
The camp saw over 100 participants from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. It was led by two trainers, Dr. Hamidah Marican and Patricia Rita Nunis from HarmonyWorks Sdn Bhd, and facilitators from various other institutions. Throughout the camp, group discussions, talks, and performances took place, in which students had the opportunity to learn how to work with each other, understand different points of view across different ethnic cultures, overcome prejudices and stereotypes in order to deliver the most feasible solution.
It was a great experience for the students; we are glad to see that they can now see the world from a bigger perspective, as they learned to accept, to embrace and to tolerate the cultural differences that they experience in their daily lives. The students who attended the camp were highly motivated to continue as Ambassadors of Diversity and Inclusion, in which they are now planning to start their own Diversity and Inclusion Club on-campus, in order to narrow the unseen gap among their fellow friends. Kudos to the students for their initiatives!
