Raj Ridvan Singh from Malaysia became the youngest achiever for Asean Microsoft Certified Professional at 16. A year later, he became the youngest Asean Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Now
at 22, you would expect him to be in any of the top technology firms in the world, but instead, he is getting recognition for his work in Cambodia where he is helping to transfer skills and knowledge to other youths.
In a project started by his father six years ago, Science of Life Systems 24/7 (SOLS 24/7) is Cambodia’s largest provider of non-formal education. Conducted at the grassroots level, SOLS is a two-year comprehensive training and boarding system that provides useful education on life skills as well as English, Microsoft Word and Excel skills, leadership and character training.
Computer skills is no longer a luxury but a necessity, and if you
do not have computer skills in today’s work environment, you are “illiterate”, Raj explains.
More important is the right attitude. “Computer training and education get them jobs, but their attitude gives them the edge,” he says.
The students also have to go back to their province and help to train other youths, Raj adds.
The programme started with 24 kids. It has now provided 9,200 youths with two-year comprehensive boarding and training as well as trained over 13,000 non-boarding students.
Raj says his father is more of a senior adviser now and that together with his younger brother, they intend to upscale their efforts to Timor Leste based on lessons learnt in Cambodia. This explains why he is one of the finalists of a possible fellowship under Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP)’s Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI).
YSEI is a programme designed to support projects by young people who use innovative solutions to address social problems, specifically those using information and communications technology (ICT) for development. Its mission is to empower passionate 17- to 30-year-olds with the means to bring about systemic social change, particularly in the areas of poverty reduction, environmental protection, gender equality and human rights.
YSEI has vetted more than 90 proposals and finally selected 10 young social entrepreneurs from Malaysia, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as finalists for a possible fellowship to support their projects.
Each fellowship provides startup grants of up to US$15,000 (RM55,500), mentorship programmes, essential development knowledge and social entrepreneurship tools and network building.
GKP’s executive committee board member Richard Fuchs says young people have innovative ideas but are not making enough impact, maybe because of lack of funding, exposure, experience and a network of people who have the capacity and resources to make their dreams come true.
“YSEI is designed to fill all these gaps. We hope to see a movement of young people with new ideas with the potential to change the world.”
Another outstanding finalist is Chandima Jayasri from Sri Lanka, who found a way to help rural farmers with Ezybuzz. Jayasri explains that in the current supply chain system, the traders and middlemen get richer while the rural farmers get poorer.
“We integrate rural farmers and traders through a supply chain management system, specifically targeting mobile devices, using SMS (short message service) to communicate. Our system will enhance quality of service by giving higher margins for them.”
Salah Udin Ahmed from Bangladesh, on the other hand, noticed that top ICT students in his country often leave the country due to lack of opportunities in ICT. His solution is XayanIT, which provides such opportunities to youths.
“We train youths interested in ICT and deliver big ICT jobs which can develop their skills and make sustainable employment,” he explains.
XayanIT’s first outsourcing job provided work in design software, and within last year it has sub-contracted 20 students and trained 30 students. It is currently working with 250 computer science students.
“Our priority now is to scale operations to meet requirements of large clients,” he says.
Yet another outstanding finalist is G.V. Krishnagopal from India who saw a way to help migrant labourers in his country with Network of Dynamic Labour Mart Association.
“Migrant labour plays an important part, but labourers lack skills and lack assets to earn a decent livelihood,” he says, adding that they lacked an organised way of operating and social security support.
So, Krishnagopal conceptualised the association with strategies to use ICT applications to develop a database of labour, service employment opportunities and institutionalise transactions with the help of bankers.
Audrey Cordera from the Philippines, on the other hand, saw that young entrepreneurs in her country found it difficult to access micro finance for startup loans, although many were available in the country. She set up the Youth Entrepreneurship Multi-Purpose Cooperative (YEMC) to help tackle unemployment, provide access to mentorship, and assist entrepreneurs at the grassroots level as well as provide loans and set up a virtual marketplace.
“The vision is to have entrepreneurs run sustainable enterprises,” she says.
A Web site was launched on March 30 in the Philippines and 30 to 50 young entrepreneurs have been trained in the pilot project.
Noting the importance of ICT in such efforts, GKP’s executive committee chairman Walter Fust says 54 per cent of the world’s population are younger than 34 years old.
“If we want to use the tools of ICT in development, we have to invest in young people because the young will teach the elderly people how to use (these tools).
“Those young entrepreneurs have innovative ideas and new ways of looking at things not linked to any constraints.”
So, while we all want a better world, these youths have not only found ways to do so, but have also put those ideas into action. They have showed that ICT is indeed a tool that can make lives better.
As Fust says, “As long as you have ideas, you can never be a loser. Maybe your idea is not considered as good as others or different or less suitable for something, but as long as people have ideas and bring forward knowledge and try to validate knowledge for new approaches, they cannot be losers.”