Youth United for the Earth

—
By Nurfatin Hamzah
The following blog post originally appeared on The CoalitionWILD website.

In response to the climate crisis and all the damage it is bringing to our planet, Nurfatin Hamzah co-founded a platform led by young people who want to do more for their country and the planet.

The Youth United for the Earth Project (YUFE) aims to show the diversity of the Malaysian environmental scene by encouraging the participation of young Malaysians in environmental action. This happens via social media where 27 young Malaysian environmentalists, known as eco-warriors, recount their work for the environment with the slogan “Celebrating Malaysia’s Environmentalism, One Youth at a Time”. One by one, they formed a network of young people committed and willing to work for the local character of their country.

Nurfatin also led her team in the planning and execution of Malaysia’s first online mentoring program related to sustainability with the aim of connecting young people interested in green careers with mentors working in sectors related to the environment and sustainable development. To date, they have brought together a total of 67 undergraduate students and 40 mentors from different disciplines, including business sustainability, biodiversity research and environmental NGOs.

You can check out the stories of these eco-warriors here via their Instagram.

The mentors guide these young people as they follow a green career and encourage pro-activity, interdisciplinary communication related to the environment and Malaysia’s unique environmental scenario. Each of the mentees receives a module that aims to guide the conversation at each session and they are expected to complete a minimum of 6.5 hours of mentoring sessions. Mentors address issues such as: green sector challenges, program review by mentors and developing a green career.

Learn more about YUFE on their website.

The big difference of the YUFE project is its approach, centered around a human-centric narrative to topics on biodiversity, environment and sustainability. After all, a large portion of the world is inhabited by people, and how beautiful it is to be able to show what amazing people are doing in the world.