Reflection by Youth Volunteers on the EYAA programme

Volunteers from the eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN programme share their thoughts and reflections from their journey throughout the five–month programme, discussing how their virtual capacity building workshops, experiential workshops, and project implementation have provided professional growth and development.

The integrated Masy Consultants and Youth Volunteer team celebrating cultural diversity during the Deep Dive Workshops

Virtual Capacity Building Workshops

The ASEAN Foundation held a series of virtual capacity building workshops from 23 August to 22 September 2021 covering the following topics: Design Thinking, Impact Measurement, Sustainability, Organisational Management, Financial Management, Reporting, and Communications & Public Campaigning.

The workshops consisted of seminars led by thought leaders and group discussions among the Youth Volunteer cohort. This benefited Youth Volunteers through the enhancement of their skills and technical knowledge in writing project proposals and project management. Aldrea Leong, the team’s Project Manager, shared, “the workshops deepened my understanding on how we can better measure impact through our initiatives if we use the right measurement tools”.

Deep Dive Workshops

Between September to November 2021, Masy Consultants curated a series of engaging experiential workshops for the Youth Volunteers. The workshops focused on the following topics: Cultural Exchange, Intercultural Communication, Optimising Well-Being & Performance, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion, Personal Effectiveness, Ethics, and Moral Leadership in Community Development.

These workshops gave Youth Volunteers the opportunity to learn about one another on a more intimate, inter-cultural level as they bonded through games and team-building activities. With music, sharing, and thought-provoking discussions, the Youth Volunteers bonded with the Masy team to forge stronger ties.

Highlight reel of memories and team meetings shared by Masy Consultants and Youth Volunteer team

Boosting Masy Consultants' Outreach Program

The Youth Volunteers played a major role in delivering Masy Consultants’ three key outputs: WASH Community Engagement & Project Management, WASH Education (WASHEd), and WASH Construction and Maintenance.

The Youth Volunteers shared a range of insights, drawing from their respective backgrounds. This included the development of the WASHEd Learning Curriculum over roundtable discussions, and later attending the launch of Masy’s flagship WASHEd program where its modules were integrated into the Department of Education's (DepEd) national curriculum, the WASH in Schools (WinS) program. Volunteers Steven and Khaing. would engage with teachers DepEd representatives to elaborate on the objectives of WASHEd. Finally, volunteers Thaileak, Aldrea, and Therese, would then address UN Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 6, Hand Hygiene and Disinfection, and various types of toilets with participants.

Delivery of project titled 'CEBU for WASH'

After a series of experiential workshops that enabled the team to understand the issues relating to WASH in the Philippines, the Youth Volunteers developed a project proposal that utilised US$5,000 sponsored by the Maybank Foundation. After many late nights spent refining their aims and goals, they finally submitted their proposal and received approval, which was approved in mid-October 2021.

The volunteers’ project titled “CEBU for WASH”, stood for: C - Community Engagement E - Empowerment in Crisis Management B - Building Facilities U - Upskilling Locals.

Within two and a half months up to January 2022, the Youth Volunteers sourced and purchased 100 emergency WASH kits, conducted a workshop for 10 teachers on how to produce homemade hand sanitiser and soap sheets, developed and shared five pieces of educational content and infographics online, reaching over 1,000 online users with the intent to raise awareness around water preservation. The situation regarding Typhoon Odette, also known as Typhoon Rai, created a new challenge for the team, where they channelled funds to purchase Aquatabs to aid relief efforts.

Their efforts have benefited the local community. Volunteer Therese states, “Though calamities are sadly expected in the Philippines, we still hoped that these emergency WASH kits would come in handy to our recipients at a later time. During the recent typhoon, I remember one of our recipients reaching out to me to ask how they can best make use of Aquatabs, one of the items included in the emergency WASH kit, and they were looking forward to educating more people in their area about its use. We have this sense of relief knowing that we were able to aid communities in Cebu through our WASH kits, especially when they needed it the most.”

Photos highlighting the distribution of emergency WASH kits and education of teachers to produce homemade hand sanitiser and soap sheets

The EYAA Youth Volunteers team is tremendously grateful to Masy Consultants for all their time, patience and dedication in guiding them throughout the entire project implementation process.

This post was largely produced by the EYAA Youth Volunteer team.

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About Masy Consultants

Masy Consultants is a social enterprise that provides clients with services ranging from project management and consultations to community engagement in the areas of clean water, sanitation, and renewable energy. With a team of professionals based across Australia and the Asia-Pacific, Masy remains results-driven, collaborative and resilient when it comes to delivering the best possible outcomes. Learn more at www.masyconsultants.org.

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