KUALA LUMPUR: Turkey is keen to establish more partnership programmes with Malaysia, particularly involving youth volunteerism.
Deputy Director-General for Turkey Youth Services of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, Serdao Eravci said creating a voluntarism hub that involves participation from both countries could be a way to help Muslims around the world.
Citing the European Union as example, he said the European Voluntary Service established for more than 10 years has impacted the lives of many thousands of young people.
“Why not we create this kind of services for the Muslim countries and we can also send our youths from Turkey and Malaysia also from other Muslim countries to help one another in every way possible,” he told Bernama, today.
Sharing Turkey’s experience, Eravci said the country had established a website that helps non- governmental organisations to search for volunteers from different groups that could give back to the community.
Earlier, he had shared the stage as a panelist with Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman on the topic of ‘Youth Empowerment in Facing Global Challenges’ at the Youth Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019.
Touching on youth empowerment aspects, he said there were more than 300 youth centres and over 30 youth camps in Turkey that provided among others, upskilling courses and training.
Meanwhile, on Malaysia’s experience, Syed Saddiq said lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 was among the moves to empower youth for the future of Malaysia.
“Some people said it’s too early but what is the problem of doing it now? We don’t want young people to be in the front lines demanding for change but when the change happens, they are precluded.
“But the young people had their voices heard when finally for the first time in Malaysia’s history, we got bipartisan support for constitution amendment,” he said.
He added that would be the young who would take the country to greater heights in the future. — Bernama
