In Cambodia for example, 63 percent of children who do enroll in primary schools, drop out before reaching grade VII. With little chance to improve their circumstances, these children are more likely to fall victims to threats of HIV/AIDS, prostitution, child trafficking, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse. With this awareness, Raj Ridvan Singh along with his father and younger brother founded Leadership Character Development Institute (LCDI) in 2000 for the less fortunate children of Cambodia.

Raj Ridvan Singh was the youngest achiever in ASEAN Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer at the age of 17. But then he shifted his focus to social work. He has won the International Youth Action Network Award in June 2004. He has represented Malaysia in International Youth Parliament at Sydney in July 2004 and World Youth Congress at Morocco in August 2003. He is also a member of International Steering Committee of International Youth Parliament and Chairman and Coordinator of South-East Asia Youth Forum.

Today L-CDI is the nation’s largest provider of non-formal education and has received positive endorsements from both the Ministry of Education and the Nation’s King. In 2005, L-CDI has also transferred its activities to local Cambodian volunteers who are registered as Grassroots Development Institute in partnership with LCDI Malaysia.

What are the key activities of your organisation?
The main activity of my organisation is to train youths who are not able to finish academic school education due to poverty – youths above the age of 16 years with premium on enrolling girls. Setting up and operating Non formal education centres and also training youths to continue the system as a sustainable programme. Programmess include life skills, job employment skills and personal development skills.

How you are associated with this organization and what are your main responsibilities?
I am one of the three founders of LCDI along with my father and younger brother. My main responsibilities are external affairs and training of the staff and volunteers. Thus I network with other organisations, donors and international volunteers through the ICT medium. I prepare reports, source for information, resources besides communicating information to those associated to LCDI. I represent LCDI at other International forums like at the International Youth Parliament – OXFAM, YouthActionNet – Int’l Youth Foundation, SEA youth Forum and many more.

In which key activities of your organisation you have played a special role so far?
My special role is in communicating with youths and organisations on working together and sharing experiences and sourcing information for expansion into new countries like East Timor and Laos. I also conduct training programmes with my father on Science of Life to help youths know their potential and be able to develop the skills to achieve much more in life.

In which activities you would like to involve yourself more for the development of the society and more specifically for the development of the youth?
From the experiences of running LCDI activities in Cambodia for nearly six years and also monitoring local Cambodians who have continued the activities in Cambodia, the main thing that we have learnt is that one of the main factor that makes a programme sustainable and continuous or for a person to effectively come out of the clutches of poverty, is the leadership and character skills of the person or the leaders. Mere life skills or job employment skills do not suffice. We have been monitoring and evaluating our programmes and strategies and have come up with a comprehensive programme for youth development called Science of Life. Now with this programme, I will teach it to youth organisations who wish to use our tested programme and also to youths in East Timor as we are extending our activates to East Timor and Laos.

If you are given a task to utilise the youth power to develop the nations in an ICT way, which steps you would like to follow to achieve that goal?
ICT for me means access to intelligent information and to resourceful people. Enthusiasm is a massive power that drive activities and all this are superbly achieved through ICT.

Through an ever expanding networking and a newsletter that encourages and educates youths, I will be able to get youths and organisations to work together to serve the less fortunate and girls.

There are thousands of youths all over the world who wish to contribute towards the betterment of humanity but have limited time or resources. Through the network and newsletter, they will be able to find ways through which this limited time and resources can be expressed with good value. Youth possess great energy and enthusiasm. Tapping on this, will go a long way to help other youths who are not only less fortunate but also those who are disillusioned.

What are the main inspirational factors behind your recent success?
Human beings are fashioned for greatness but need to live by principles and exert effort to achieve their potential. Achievement is the biggest desire and ecstasy for human beings but material achievement does not give satisfaction or fulfillment. All humans have five areas in life namely - Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual. Working on 5 areas of life and striving to achieve excellence in all the five areas have been both so fulfilling and also convincing that this path is far superior to mere material achievement and acquisition.

What is your message to the youth as a winner of this youth award?
I don’t know why I have been blessed to be born in Malaysia besides being born to my parents and many opportunities that have come my way to suggest that I’m very fortunate or lucky. Millions it seems are not as fortunate as me in my context. Since I am very lucky, I want to share some of my luck with others who may not be as lucky as me. In sharing my luck with others, little did I know that, so much more luck kept coming my way? Human beings are fashioned for greatness, as we strive to develop five areas we also begin to live a very fulfilling life.

How will this achievement help you in your future initiatives?
This achievement is a very powerful confirmation that striving to develop five areas of our life brings achievements beyond any material happiness. We not only achieve the material pleasures, but also receive lots of love and recognition from others. This achievement will help others have trust in Science of Life.

Through these achievements, it will be much easier to convince poor people of the effectiveness of LCDI programmes because many poor people are skeptical about the value of investing on education and personal development.

Trying to secure funding for projects and winning the confidence and trust of organisations or those in authority will be so much easier. As we are on the verge of extending activities to East Timor, this achievement will facilitate things.

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