Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions 2017
With an apt theme titled Behind My Smile, UCSI Scholar’s Circle (U-Schos) had an exciting program lined up for their Humanitarian Week 2017. Held at MaGIC, Cyberjaya, there were various forums, talks and discussions and on the last day was the award presentation for Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions Award for 2017.
All nominees for the award (Click to enlarge image)
There were 18 nominees, and the top 10 award recipients were nominated and voted by youths across Malaysia aged between 18-25. The award was organised by U-Schos, and aims to acknowledge the contribution and works of young Malaysians who have empowered the underserved community, and improved the situation and current issues faced by and within the community.
Many renowned individuals in the fields of community service and social enterprise were nominated. Among them were John-Son Oei, founder of EPIC Homes who works closely with the Orang Asli communities, Deborah Henry, co-founder of a school for refugee children called Fugee School and Dr. S. Madhusudhan, the founder of Teddy Mobile Clinic which caters for the homeless.
Kechara’s very own Chuah Su Ming was amongst this impressive list of community warriors. Being a Founding Committee Member of Kechara Soup Kitchen and currently the Secretary of the committee, Su Ming went on to be voted as one of Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions. She received the award alongside nine other inspiring individuals on Sunday, 1st October 2017.
Su Ming receiving an award for Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions 2017. The award, in the form of an art piece, was drawn by refugee children.
This award saw the attendance of many people, especially students, and was a great way to empower and encourage them to be the aspiring young leaders of tomorrow. It became an event where people didn’t only come to celebrate the achievements of the nominees but to also be inspired and moved to action by their works on ground.
On the day of the awards, a few speakers and panelists from various backgrounds were lined up to speak, from Syed Azmi who is a vocal and passionate social activist, to Raj Ridvan Singh who is the founder of SOLS 24/7, a volunteer network based in Malaysia, among many others. Towards the end of the day, Su Ming and the other nine awardees took the stage one after another, speaking about the works that they do and the lives that have been impacted as a result of people coming together for the greater good.
In her speech, Su Ming presented the facts and figures of Kechara Soup Kitchen, who has delivered almost 1 million meals to date in Malaysia and mobilised more than 80,000 volunteers.
In Su Ming’s speech, she started off by introducing Kechara Soup Kitchen and its different programs such as the food bank and soup kitchen initiatives. These programs provide necessities to those on the brink of becoming homeless and also food to those that are homeless due to various reasons. Su Ming continued on to elaborate on the other works Kechara Soup Kitchen does with the urban poor, some of which include working with Tesco and McDonald’s for employment recruitment and community services such as skills-training to empower and equip them to be self sustainable.
Toward the end of her speech, Su Ming shared the history of Kechara Soup Kitchen, which was founded in 2006 by Tsem Rinpoche and has since grown to where it is now, serving almost one million meals to date. She encouraged the attendees to take the first step into volunteerism and spoke of its benefits to others and to themselves, and how gratitude should be one of our guiding values.
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Empowering-young-community-champion-2017-su-ming-speech.mp4
Su Ming and the other awardees shared not just their words but also their heart to the eager and young crowd. It was inspiring and encouraging listening to not just the speeches by the awardees and panelists, but to see the passion, dedication and drive every single one of them had towards their cause and their vision to create a better and more socially conscious Malaysia.
Congratulations to all awardees, and a very big thank you to U-Schos, Hands of Hope, Refuge for the Refugees and The Good Tavern for collaborating and organising a meaningful conference, bringing smiles from everyone who attended the event.
Congratulations to all champions for being awarded Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions of 2017.
Dr Madhu, who volunteers with Kechara Soup Kitchen, went on to win an award too for founding Teddy Mobile Clinic.
Jon Ming, co-founder of EPIC Homes, representing John-Son Oei.
A short interview session where Su Ming conveyed her message of hope and inspiration to the youth.
Registration desk
The Social Market where everyone enjoyed themselves during the breaks.
For more videos and pictures from Behind My Smile 2017, please visit their official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/behindmysmile2017/
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KSK has established since 2006, almost 15 years. The idea of giving hope to people living in the streets is very powerful. I went to be volunteer once, it help me understand more the stories behind of the homeless, they help me to see different about life.
Nurture the heart and mind is important. Through the action of a warm meal and care, one can feel hope and gain inner strength. People will be able to do different choices when they transform their mind. It reminds me the quote of Maya Angelou, “people people will never forget how you made them feel.”.
It’s totally not easy to run an organization especially a non-profit. Tsem Rinpoche’s will in connect people together are really strong. By working together with community, lives change.
May KSK grow stronger and grounded, may more sentient beings transform to a better life.
Congratulations to all the winners of the award. It is great to participate in community and volunteering works. We are part of the community and we should always care for them and help those who needed assistance in all forms.
We are fortunate that Rinpoche created Kechara Soup Kitchen to bring food and hope to the homeless. Many of the homeless would have given up hopes due to their living conditions. With many more organisations helping the community we will develop a compassionate and loving society.
Inspiration is important for the youth and adults, inspiration makes us get up and really go out there to do beneficial works for others. Volunteering and doing something for others is really beneficial for anyone and everyone. Volunteering or giving our time to others is a way of not focusing on ourselves so much, in fact it gives us some time off from ourselves.
Kechara Soup Kitchen is one of the arms of the Kechara group whose founder, H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche conceptualised and manifested to serve the homeless with food and comfort through a warm meal and care.
Behind this great organisation, there are warriors of compassion who share Rinpoche’s vision to serve others without boundaries to their age, circumstance, race, tradition nor religion.
One of the many, is our Chuah Su Ming and I congratulate her for being recognised for the work she has done so tireless for so long. Thank Su Ming.
Good jobs KSK , is very important for the young people to be able to volunteer in all these organisation who main goal is to help the needy by helping them actually give us a sense of satisfaction that we are lucky to be able to give, keep up the good work Su Ming and the team.
Congratulations Su Ming for being voted for this great community service award. KSK has progressed a lot since 2006 and has done a lot of good work for the homeless and the destitute. I’ve been a volunteer for about 2 years and know what KSK does for the people living in the streets. The leaders of KSK and volunteers help in so many ways to improve their conditions. They send the sick to the hospital or clinic, give food and essential articles, etc. to the homeless and poor families, send the elderly to old folks’ homes, counselling and so on. This selfless community service is an inspiration to young Malaysians. Keep up the good work! Congratulations again!
Congratulations to Chuah Su Ming, secretary of the Kechara Soup Kitchen committee and a Founding Committee member , for winning the award for Malaysia’s Top Ten Most Empowering Young Community Champions -2017! Among the award winners are many like Su Ming who are involved with community projects and social services.
With an audience of mostly young people who were waiting to be inspired to follow in the footsteps of the award winners, Su Ming gave a warm and stirring speech which generated much interest about becoming a volunteer in NGOS serving the poor and needy in our urban community. Su Ming spoke about Kechara Soup Kitchen’s programs that go beyond feeding the homeless in distribution lines. There is the food-bank program which actually helps poor urban families with a steady supply of food,so they can turn their attention to paying their monthly rental and other basic needs. There are also medical services provided by volunteer medical personnel. There is also a collaboration with food outlets like Tesco and MacDonald to get jobs for the jobless, as well as skills-training to empower them to be self-sufficient
Among other aspects, Su Ming spoke about negotiating with the homeless on matters that a person lacking real awareness and empathy would normally overlook, but which is so vital to gain the faith and trust of “clients”. who would otherwise feel that they are being treated like social outcasts. For example, she spoke about skillfully negotiating with parents of impoverished families who refuse to send their children to school because they feel they need them to earn much needed additional income for the family.
The core value of gratitude must always be there with volunteers, says Su MIng. We must feel a sense of gratitude that, no matter what, we are definitely so much better off than the homeless that we are serving – we should be appreciative of what we have. In serving the homeless , we learn that they are giving us an opportunity to develop generosity of spirit as well as in kind.
Much of what Su Ming says about real care and compassion actually comes from our Guru’s tireless teachings and his example.
Volunteering is a good form of training for us to give of ourselves to help others and benefit them.
Su Ming and the team in Kechara Soup Kitchen keep up with the good work. You inspired and empowered Malaysian youths to follow your footsteps to help the less privileged. With care and kindness Malaysia will be a better place to live in.
It is indeed thanks to the various organizations like U-Schos, Hands of Hope, Refuge for the Refugees and The Good Tavern that highlight the work these young people do. Not to glam them but to bring awareness of their passion and actions that bring happiness to others. Without these events, less people will be aware and thus both sides of the fence will be the lesser for it. This is about empowering the younegr generation, about humanity in the future.
Thank you for sharing about this event. And, congratulations to the winners especially to Kechara Soup Kitchen’s Chua Su Ming. Thank you for you dedication and commitment.
Congratulation Ms Su Ming for been nominated Malaysia’s Top 10 Most Empowering Young Community Champions Award for 2017. She will inspired more younger generation to work harder. To empower and encourage them to be the aspiring young leaders of tomorrow. She did us prod as she is from KSK team ,our Being a Founding Committee Member of Kechara Soup Kitchen and currently the Secretary of the committee. She has worked hard and deserved to be nominated.
Its wonderful moment when Su Ming spoke about her work and she has encouraged more people into volunteerism and spoke of its benefits to others and to themselves.
Thank you for sharing .