The Malaysian Youth Delegation hosted the annual Retreat at EPIC Collective over the weekend of the 28th and 29th April 2018. New members were asked to reflect the activities they took part in, what they learned along the way, and what they took away from the experience. Here’s what our new members had to say:

By Yuen Zhao (YZ)

Personally, what motivated my participation in the Malaysian Youth Delegation was a self-conflict of how change can be made in society towards the appreciation of the environment and the importance of conservation. Coming from a conservation biology background that is pretty much like pure biology in relation to conservation paradigms, we learnt a bit about climate change which I then noticed cuts across many issues. It is intersectional, and there is a dire need of mainstreaming it into other issues as well.

From my level as an individual and a researcher/biologist/conservationist in training, I want to learn how I can make an impact and contribute to that, thus, helping to solve the problems in different contexts. I want to learn about the balance between different approaches and strategies in different contexts and their effectiveness as well as efficiencies in directing changes towards our future aims (i.e. science, roles of people as stakeholders, interest groups, government representatives, civil society organizations, citizens, policies, awareness and et cetera). Having mentioned that, I have so much to learn and the Malaysian Youth Delegation will facilitate and enhance my learning process while bringing me forward with a new knowledge set.

The retreat was a great introduction to beginners. Content wise, I agree that it was well planned except for the sharing sessions between participants and facilitators. We were reminded that COP24 is a means to an end rather than being the end goal. However, we spent quite a lot of time discussing about COP24. I agree that facilitating a discussion is difficult but I wished it was more personal and process-driven i.e. learning about each others’ background and trying to find our roles in achieving an impact on climate change education and awareness in where we live/currently reside. I hope anyone reading can understand this.

Nevertheless, it was awesome and I look forward to learning more with the Malaysian Youth Delegation in 2018!