She now serves in a voluntary role as Director of the Mendaki Club @M3 Tampines, where she leads efforts to oversee data/impact evaluation operations and social programs within M3 @ Tampines.
M3 is an alliance comprising Mendaki, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and the Council of Executive Committees of Malay Activities under the People’s Association.
While Ms. Attiya found her way to civic engagement through volunteering, Ms. Pamela Low, 28, founder of Tingkats, got her start through a student exchange trip to Germany.
Tingkats is an initiative to work with local communities, schools and businesses to eliminate disposable products.
During her semester abroad in 2017, Low was inspired by Germany’s measures to combat single-use plastic, from strict rules for sorting recyclables to charging for bags. in plastic.
“This whole experience helped me see the future,” she said, referring to how Southeast Asian countries could perhaps “do things differently and better.”
“It gave a glimpse of what was possible and what was actually important,” added Ms Low, who created Tingkats in 2018.
Inspired by the progress made by Germany and, by extension, the European Union in meeting their renewable energy goals, it started small with initiatives around its university campus at the National University of Singapore ( NUS) to reduce the use of single-use plastic. disposable.
She worked with the juice stand in one of NUS’s canteens to implement disposable charging on disposable cups and encourage the use of reusable glass cups.
For Mr Nor Syazwan Abdul Majid, 27, his venture into advocacy work was inspired by his mother, who grew up in Pulau Ubin. In 2018, he founded an online social platform, Wan’s Ubin Journal, to preserve and celebrate the culture and heritage of the Orang Pulau (islander) community of Pulau Ubin.
Mr Syazwan is a full-time student at the Singapore University of Social Sciences pursuing a degree in Social Work with a minor in Sociology.
He lives on the Singapore mainland, but regularly leads treks around Pulau Ubin to learn about the island’s cultural heritage.
“I will say that grief is what drove me to do this work… because my mother is grieving over the loss of her kampung, and that sort of mixed in with my grief over not not being able to experience the legacy that my mom was able to experience,” he said.
“My way of trying to resolve my grief is through advocacy.”
INSPIRATION FOR YOUTH PANELS
In April, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong announced that young people would take part in two or three panels set up this year to give their views on government policies.
He announced the youth-led panels for the first time in Parliament on April 21, inspired by a report TODAY published on April 11 on the desire of young Singaporeans to engage in meaningful debate with policymakers.
This will enable young people to play a greater role in policy formulation, beyond simple dialogues and consultations.
Topics from the panel that merit further debate could be presented to Parliament, and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth could sponsor a white paper or green paper on the proposal for consideration in Parliament, Ms. .Tong in April.
These youth panels will examine financial security, careers and lifelong learning, digital well-being, and the environment and sustainability.
Ms Kong Man Jing, 29, looks forward to the youth panels and looks forward to more young people having the chance to “co-create policies” with the government.
Ms. Kong creates short educational videos about science and the environment on TikTok and Instagram using the handle by JustKeepThinkingSg.
“I think we should take advantage of this opportunity provided by the government. They are already reaching out; it’s time to reach out and build something together,” the sustainability and environment influencer said.
