Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The discouraging number of youth volunteers has brought about the need for the establishment of an active, structured organisation for local youth organisations in the country to disseminate information and boost the spirit of volunteerism amongst the nation's youth.

"Good networking among organisations and the government is needed in order to boost volunteerism among the youth," said Liyana Imani Abdul Latif, honorary secretary for Penyinar Club, a youth division under the Brunei Darussalam Aids Council, to The Brunei Times.

"We could set up a youth advisory hoard or something so that youths can come together and easily volunteer in organisations based on their interests," she said, adding that all organisations should communicate amongst each other and advertise better when they have open slots for volunteers.

Stating that a good initiative to start volunteering

is to approach an organisation or a cause in which the individual is interested in, Liyana said: "No non-government organisation can afford to say 'no' to help."

With just a handful of youth volunteers in the nation, Liyana stated that although most are willing to help, volunteers do tend to come and go. "All of our youths are aged 15 to 40 and are either students, working individuals or parents. So its pretty hard to find time to commit to a certain cause," she said.

Dibah, a representative from the Humanitarian Affairs Volunteers Group, had another angle as to why youth volunteers only form a small population in the country. "Simply because when it comes to volunteering, most youths expect rewards in return. For example, most would ask if they will get certificates at the end of the volunteering work. We still lack youths who are really into volunteerism without any expectations in return."

Another possible reason why volunteerism is not active in Brunei is because people here are not exposed and well-informed about the social problems in Brunei," she said, adding that these problems need helpful hands to contribute in improving the welfare of the society.

Through education, students can be informed on a wider scale on the reasons and benefits of volunteerism and the media also plays an important role in disseminating information on youth volunteerism, she said.

As a newly established independent volunteer organisation which was established last year, Dibah stated that they are looking into and are hoping to recruit more volunteers. "We welcome anyone and everyone should know that we do volunteerism in all aspects, be it sports, community services or anything related to volunteerism."

A former participant of the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Programme (SSEAYP) 2008, Daphne Lai Leck Ching is no stranger to volunteerism and shared her experiences and knowledge gained from Asean countries she visited.

"Countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, they have a lot of active volunteer organisations," she said, adding that in Brunei, "living in comfort" seems to send the message that volunteerism is not needed.

"Maybe the reason why youths in Brunei are not active in volunteerism is because we live too comfortably. We hardly see or experience any social problems such as extreme poverty in the country, therefore youths have this mindset that there's not much volunteering to do," she said.

In addition, there is no structured organisation that can gather all the youth organist ations in Brunei, she added. "Volunteerism is a form of youth development and it enhances various skills, especially leader ship skills."

"There are ways to disseminate the importance and mutual benefits of volunteerism. One is through education in schools (for example, setting up a volunteer club) or through associations like the Girl Guides," she said. "Most students tend to hesitate and need to start volunteering at a place where they can build a foundation," stated Daphne.

She further explained that during her time in the SSEAYP, the participants discussed setting up a carnival or roadshow with the Youth and Sports Department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports to gather all existing youth organisations in one place to promote and speak of the importance of volunteerism and youth participation in contributing to society.

"This was an effort to boost youth volunteerism in Brunei and make people aware that youth volunteerism play a significant role in youth development as well as, for the whole nation," she said. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times