GEORGE TOWN, December 6 – On this day of International Volunteer Day, Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) wishes to celebrate our Penang Youth Volunteer for their hard work and dedication to volunteerism throughout year 2020 and 2021. Their good deed will always be cherished and inspire others. Since 1st March 2020, Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) has launched Penang Youth Volunteer as a platform for volunteerism. On this platform, volunteers register and gather to join volunteer works whenever available.
The volunteer works involve seven different categories, namely environment, charity work, sports, art and culture, education, first aid, and disaster aid. This platform was established with the vision to lead volunteerism in various fields for the well-being of the community, and where the youth volunteers can work hard and act holistically to help the community in Penang. As of December 2021, Penang Youth Volunteer has a total of 2030 participants, which is aligned with Penang2030 vision.
Some of the programme done for the first category which is environment is ‘Program Recycling Bersama Tzu Chi Buddhist Association’ on 7 April 2020 and ‘Program Gotong-Royong Bersama KADUN Batu Uban’ on 4 April 2021. PYDC believes that taking care of the environment is not a one-man job, but it is the responsibility of everyone, thus why the programmes were organized. As we all know, we could not stop natural disasters from happening, but we could help the victims as best as we could, which is why we have included disaster aids as one of the categories.
With the shortage of blood in blood bank due to the pandemic of COVID-19, PYDC has conducted ‘Blood Donation Drive’ on 19 October and 20 November 2021. For charity work, PYDC has conducted numerous programmes. The programmes include ‘Lawatan Prihatin ke Rumah Penyayang’ on 22 August 2020 and ‘Pendaftaran dan Pengagihan Bantuan Makanan together with Pusat Khidmat KADUN Batu Lancang in the past July 2021. These programmes are conducted in the hope to help those in need especially in time of pandemic.
The fourth category is ‘Education’ in which PYDC believes that education is a life-long journey where it never ends. Thus, PYDC has conducted many programmes to teach, and it involves the volunteers as the mentor, depending on their expertise. Some of the programmes include ‘Program Basic Malaysia Sign Language’ on 24 October 2020 and ‘Perkongsian Sempena Hari Sukarelawan Antarabangsa – Dari Mahasiswa Untuk Masyarakat’ on 5 December 2020.
In the category of First Aid, PYDC has conducted a few first aid workshops to teach youths on first aid. These workshops are ‘Program – Live-Saving First Aid Skills: Everyone Should Learn’ on 19 September 2020, ‘Program Atas Talian CPR & AED’ on 6 March 2021，and First Aid Webinar on 27 June 2021. The sixth category is Art and Culture in which volunteers will be involved in anything related to art as art has always been one of the main attractions in Penang.
The programmes that have been conducted include ‘Program Mural Art Taman Riang’ in March until May 2021, ‘Program Mural Art Taman Dahlia’ on 10 October 2021, and ‘Program Mural Art KADUN Penanti’ on 27 November 2021. The last category which is sports is to give opportunity for everyone to play sports. Not just focusing on the athletes, but the volunteers also need to ensure the sports event runs smoothly. Some of the events that the volunteers were involved in include ‘Malaysia Super League’ on 11&24 April 2021, 8 May 2021, ‘Piala Malaysia’ on 3 November 2021 and upcoming event ‘Open Beach Volleyball Tournament’ on 9 December until 12 December 2021 and ‘Air Badminton Tournament 2021’ on 18 December 2021.
