by Carissa Livan Ding, Malaysia, YES 2015 alumna hosted with AFS in North Carolina

I believe in the inherent good in all of us that wants to affect positive change. Call me an idealistic fool, but I think the overuse of Gandhi's "Be the change you want to see" quote is evidence for this. It saddens me to hear my friends compassionately talk about a certain cause but then we get tied up with our own busy schedules and a convenient avenue to turn these ideas into reality does not really exist. 

With this thought in mind, I started the Initiate Club in my school to serve as a platform for students to start up projects that will positively impact their community. 

One of our successful projects is the Teach-A-Child Program for refugee children. Under this program, students sign up as volunteer teachers for refugee children from Myanmar, who are otherwise not allowed to legally enroll in Malaysian schools. Almost every 2 weeks, we arrange transport to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) centre where we meet the children and teach them basic English, maths and science. 

Other initiative undertaken by the club are basic self defense classes for girls and food donation drives for the indigenous people living in Felda Trolak Selatan. It is my hope that other people out there will be prompted to be changemakers.