Rasma 2020 graduation

RASMA 2020 GRADUATION

BY

SHAHIRA AHMED BAZARI

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF YAYASAN HASANAH

5 DECEMBER 2020 (SATURDAY)
11.00am – 12.30pm (5 MIN SPEECH)

VIRTUAL (LIVE)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89968261657?pwd=SzU2cVRKcUVFRXQ2aUE5bWNKWFFQQT09
Meeting ID: 899 6826 1657
Passcode: 196980

Bismillahirahmanirrahim.

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and a very good morning to all of you.

TP Lim, R&S Malaysia President,

Our Young Volunteers and Awardees,

Partner Organisations,

Mentors,

Distinguished Guests,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. On behalf of Yayasan Hasanah, we are once again happy and excited to be part of The Roots & Shoots Malaysia Award Graduation Ceremony that promotes volunteerism in youths and give young Malaysians an opportunity to help the environment, animals and their communities.

2.    I’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Roots & Shoots for another successful year, despite the challenges of a pandemic, in enabling young people to have an opportunity to carry out volunteering activities that are centred around the core values of respecting, protecting and nourishing all living things.

• Allow me to also extend my  heartiest congratulations and note of appreciation to all the 18 partner organisations that is part of RASMA 2020, I understand there were 14 organisations that are in the CFS landscape– because without your support and partnership we would not be able to see the positive impact on our young Malaysians today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

• When we started this journey,  in partnering with Roots & Shoots Malaysia on RASMA, both TP and I discovered that we share the same concerns for our youth as they are being disconnected to the environment issues in the country, and we agreed, what better way for them to learn is to be at the ground level, understanding the issues and working with partner organisation who are trying to make a difference. It is indeed wonderful to see so many enthusiastic partner organisations that have agreed to came on board in hosting these volunteers and providing them some insights, knowledge and skills on how they can be part of the solution.  
• The issues of nature conservation and protection of critical ecosystems of rivers, forest and marine ecosystems are the main focus of Hasanah’s work track in Environment Impact Area. From 2021 onwards, we in Hasanah would be prioritising to enable more projects and initiatives in the state of Perak, as to bring in a more targeted approach in sourcing for solutions and involving various stakeholders and communities to drive sustainable development,  with Perak as the pilot state in Peninsular Malaysia.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

• I am made to understand this year we received 167 applications, with more than 3 quarters of them female and out of these applicants, 47% are between the ages of 20 and 22.
• I am happy to note that the RASMA 2020 programme saw a total of 53 successful participants volunteering between 45 and 75 hours over three months from August to October 2020 that effectively clocked 5,167 volunteering hours from all volunteers. This is more than the target set for Roots & Shoots which was merely 40 successful RASMA graduates for 2020.
• Hasanah support for the RASMA programme is for another 2 years and we hope to see more youth volunteers and partner organisations coming on board to be the agents of change.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,

• The main objective of supporting this initiative is to emphasize the importance of promoting the spirit of volunteerism in young people, engaging their heart in being passionate about an issue, their heads in thinking about an issue – and ultimately their hands, in being proactive and being a part of the solution at on a local scale.
• The RASMA Award aims to inculcate the mindset that every person CAN make a difference. While environmental problems are a global issue, we hope this Award will help young people realise their power in making a change wherever they are. In essence, it is about getting young people in Malaysia to be a part of the solution to (environmental) problems in Malaysia.
• With that, Yayasanan Hasanah together with our partner Roots & Shoots Malaysia congratulate all of our young awardees today – congratulations and bravo to all of you!

To our dear volunteers,

1. Protecting the environment and improving climate resilience is a global effort but in Malaysia we have a special role to play as we are the custodians of the world’s oldest and biodiverse rainforest.
2. We need transformative leaders as you all who are willing to challenge the status quo and who are willing to adopt a new way of solving challenges of the future.
3. Again, we are delighted to partner with so many organisations be it NGOs, CSOs, public agencies and private orgasations on a on a holistic sustainability development pathway for our people and our country. As a Corporate foundation we hope to act as trailblazers to accelerate social progress towards building a better Malaysia, a step forward to building a better world.
4. I believe I have taken more time than what was allocated to me, and so, congratulations again to TP and the crew at Roots & Shoots, RASMA Partner Organisations and all the successful RASMA Youth Volunteers. Thank you.