Posts Tagged ‘free’

The Star Newspaper – Inspiring positive change in youth

September 6th, 2010 » No Comments » CYW BLOGS

By ALLAN KOAY
startwo@thestar.com.my

Are today’s youth apathetic and uncaring? A couple in Kuala Lumpur does not think so and has founded a movement to inspire young people towards positive change.

IT IS inevitable. Each generation thinks the succeeding generation is doomed. It’s in our nature to regard the formative years of our lives as the best compared to any other generation’s. Our music, movies and arts were the best, people behaved better and were friendlier, young people were smarter and more responsible. But were they really?

Those who grew up in the digital age may seem to have it easy with everything literally at their fingertips – fingertips on a keyboard, that is. Ask anyone who grew up in the 1970s or 80s, and she or he will probably say the kids today are apathetic and materialistic.

But Kelvin Lim and his wife, Cathryn, refuse to believe that. They choose to pin their hopes on the young people of today, believing that the general consensus is wrong and that today’s youth can be inspired to act for the greater good. (CLICK HERE to read more)

MAID ABUSE IN MALAYSIA: Tortured souls in our homes

August 6th, 2010 » No Comments » CYW BLOGS

MORE than 1,000 maids, mainly Indonesians, flee their cruel employers every year, migrant worker advocates reveal as more horror stories of “slave maids” emerged yesterday.

Some, including illegal domestic help and victims of human trafficking, remain runaways for fear of deportation.

Others seek protection from their respective embassies, in some cases, along with newborn babies — often the product of sexual assault.

The dreadful stories came from women at the shelter in the Indonesian Embassy on Jalan Tun Razak.

As of yesterday, 162 women were at the shelter which has a capacity to hold 75 people. Some stay for weeks, some for months.

Some of them have been beaten, raped or tortured with scalding water and nearly all have been treated like slaves and not paid for months or years of exhausting work.

Many still bear the scars, scalds and wounds inflicted on them.

Now they wait for their cases to be resolved via mediation with resentful former employers, or make their way painfully slowly through Malaysia’s court system, before they can return to their villages and towns.

Of the estimated 300,000 maids in Malaysia, Indonesians make up 90 per cent while Filipinas constitute
eight per cent.

Read more @ the Malay mail