sarawakbahai.org

Lim was awarded the Outstanding Young Malaysian Awards 2006 (TOYM) for Moral or Religious Leadership by Junior Chambers International (JCI) Malaysia. The award is in recognition of his 13 years of outstanding contribution towards the development of academic, moral and spiritual education of children and youths from the Jenjarom community.

Soon Kam was nominated for the Award by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Malaysia. Endorsed by the Ministry of Youth & Sports of Malaysia, The Outstanding Young Persons of The World Programme (Jaycees, US) and the Malaysia Book of Records, this internationally acclaimed Award is to accord recognition to Soon Kam’s outstanding personal achievements and significant contributions to the welfare of the community through the implementation of the four core activities in Jenjarom Chinese New Village, situated 2 hours away from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A youth camp which presented talks on ‘Challenges faced by youths of today’ and ‘How to build self-esteem’ attracted 26 Baha’i members from the various places in Miri and Niah yesterday. It was held at the Petronas Games Village here.

Themed ‘Youths and Spiritual Knowledge’, the event was organized by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Miri, specially for youths aged between 13 and 16.

“This group gathering was organized to increase awareness among youths on the importance of morality in accordance with the Baha’i principle, and in line with the government’s concern for youth provlems,” said a task force committee member and Baha’i member, SR Ramsey.

There were 218 people participating in the children’s festival 2004; a total of 70 children, 75 junior youths, 16 youths and 57 adults out of which about 60 were unexpected turn-ups. We are very happy to have quite a large number of seekers among our participants. About 15 children, 20 junior youths and 2 parents were seekers.Programmes were catered for 3 groups, the children, the junior youths and the parents.

The junior youths were sub-divided into about 10 persons per group for workshops and performance. Lee Yih Ven and Kenneth Jampang were the main coordinators for the junior youth programmes and other facilitators for each sub-group were appointed to assist with their workshops and performance.

The journey started with eight youths from Bau, Lundu and Kuching, traveling together from Kuching to Serian on 23 November. In Serian we were joined by another group of nine youths and we stayed at Ellen Joseph’s residence before proceeding to our first destination, Kampung Bugu Mawang the next morning.

Book 1 course started with 11 Bahá’í youths with myself and Poly Jampang as tutors. The course was held during day time only. At the same time children’s class and junior youth class were conducted by Calstino and Hartini. They were assisted by Erwina and Dovin. In the evening, workshop on arts was held whereby the youth were taught how to chant prayers, songs, games and dances. Besides that we also visited and prayed for a friend who was ill. He passed away a week later.

The campaign started on 1 November 2003 and was successfully completed on 30 November. The purpose of the campaign was to get the participants to attend a series of Ruhi courses, namely, Ruhi Book 1 through Book 4.

On Nov 1, Book 1 started with 4 participants. At the same time the junior youth class started with 22 participants, including one non-Bahá’í. On Nov 5, Book 2 started with 8 participants. At the same time a group of 8 persons started with Book 4. On Nov 18, graduates of Book 2 proceeded to Book 3 with 13 participants. On Nov 23 graduates of Book 3 continued to Book 4 with 12 participants.

On November 12, a group of four youths comprising Zarrin, Miday, Margeretha and I went with Uncle Balan to Kampung Ipuh Diang for the celebration of the Anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh. The next day, 13th November, we organized a junior youth gathering, starting at 8 a.m.

A very successful Winter School was held at Sematan Beach from 6 – 9 December 2002. It was attended by about 180 Baha’is and was graced with the presence of Counsellor George Soraya, Auxiliary Board Members Bunsie Tunton, Kalong Katik, Rahmi Kho and most members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Sarawak.

I’m glad to share with you that we held a Children Class pre-campaign last weekend (7-9th Feb) with assistance from Mdm Parvaneh, a resource person from West Malaysia, the National Child Education Committee and Sarawak Bahá’í Institute. The venue was the CAWF office at Jalan Keretapi. The purpose of this pre-campaign was to bring the friends (those having completed Ruhi Book 3 and/or Children’s Class teachers) to study more on the importance of moral education (using Ruhi Book 3) and for the multiplication of the children’s classes and to bring in the seekers.

Friends, the NBYC of Sarawak is working on a big programme for the upcoming school holiday. There will be Ruhi courses for youths all over Sarawak. We know that our youth do not have much money so the plan is to allow them to attend the courses in their own communities in rural areas. The NBYC has discussed with ATCs in several clusters regarding the programme. Clusters that have confirmed they will be organising a programme are Serian, Lundu, Sebuyau and Simunjan. We are contacting ATCs in other clusters such as Sibu, Niah, Bakong and Limbang to study how we can collaborate.