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Hi, I am Annie Yap. I am Malaysian Chinese and I am a cradle Catholic. I come from a below-average class family. When I was young, financial issues were a source of quarrels between my parents. Nevertheless, my dad always wanted me to receive higher education despite the financial challenge. With my dad’s encouragement and support, I managed to complete my studies in ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and became an accountant in my twenties.

I worked in corporate for years, and not only handled the finance work, I also headed a project to implement an integrated system from front to back office, as well as linking it up with the accounting system. I loved my job, I was passionate to build a good internal control system. I believe it is suitable for my personality…… until one day I felt God call me to respond to His unconditional love, by serving full time in Fondacio.

Without much hesitation, I entered the discernment process and responded to the mission after I cleared with my discernment. I started my full-time mission in Fondacio in mid-August 2016 after World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow. I remember the Pope’s message during Virgil: “There is another, even more dangerous, kind of paralysis in life. I like to describe it as the paralysis that comes from confusing happiness with a sofa.  In other words, to think that in order to be happy all we need is a good sofa.

■       A sofa that makes us feel comfortable, calm, safe.

■       A sofa like one of those we have nowadays with a built-in massage unit to put us to sleep.

■       A sofa that promises us hours of comfort so we can escape to the world of videogames and spend all kinds of time in front of a computer screen.

■       A sofa that keeps us safe from any kind of pain and fear.

■       A sofa that allows us to stay home without needing to work at, or worry about, anything.  “Sofa-happiness”!  That is probably the most harmful and insidious form of paralysis, which can cause the greatest harm to young people. “

With the Pope’s message that I received before I embarked my mission, I always reminded myself not to remain where I am or be too comfortable with what I am doing. To always challenge myself and not to remain on the “sofa” too long. Thus, I accepted the challenge to set up Young Lives in Kuala Lumpur even though it’s easier and more convenient for me to just be a Finance Director for Fondacio Asia, taking care of all the finances of our projects in Asia.

At that time, I did not have much idea how to start ‘Young Lives’ besides reading some write-ups and other materials. In the midst of searching for material, I read Evangelii Gaudium. Two paragraphs  touched me deeply:

54. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own.

187. Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, and for enabling them to be fully a part of society.

This demands that we be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.

It was true, I was incapable of feeling compassion to the others at that time. I always thought I could be exempted because my life was so busy with office work, community missions and my parish ministry. With my past busy life, I lost my compassion for the people around me. I was indifferent to the situation of marginalised people. I was not particularly concerned about them or their experiences. Without realising it, one part of the humanity in me was lost, slowly died….

I always feel grateful that God used Young Lives as a vehicle to transform me, from self-centred to more compassionate to the marginalised. This realization has motivated me to desire to reach out to the people like my past self. My dream is that many people can have the opportunity to touch their inner self, the true self through Young Lives, so that their lives will be more wholesome and integrated.

There is a saying, ‘No one is too rich to receive and no one is too poor to give’. For me, Young Lives is a bridge to connect different groups of people to encounter and to exchange life experiences. We enrich each other as we share ourselves with others.

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I am Alice Tan, a Malaysian who used to live in the Philippines since 2006 and since March 2020 living in Laos at the Young Lives Center in Vientiane during the lockdown. During this period, I had the opportunity to live simple life with Aleona, my housemate and team mate,  where I can cook, clean and catch up with many things & people!!! I even started exercising :)

The Young Lives Center is blessed with a big garden where students planted tomatoes and vegetables which we could harvest as and when we wanted. What's more amazing were the delicious mangoes that were ripening day by day and we could enjoy them, dry them and cook them because there was just so much for two persons even though we tried to give it away.
What is so exciting is also the forming of the Young Lives Global Team which to me epitomises the fun of working together, being agile and the potential of developing a better future for and with marginalised young people!!!

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Slaw everyone!

I’m Balambo, from Iraqi Kurdistan. I’ve started MERE Academy which is an initiative who focuses on personal development and education. Personally the lockdown for me was not a first time experience due to the geographical location and political situation I’m living, which led to many lockdowns because of constant wars and battles facing my country, and that fact made us more prepared and familiar to the situation. Therefore, I could manage my times and thoughts easier and be more helpful to myself and my community.

I would like to share with you that I can play and compose music but as hobby not my profession and Have a good experience in travel and leisure, so if you liked to know how to arrange a cheap trip but in a good quality let me know ;)

At last, I’m glad to know each one of you and happy to share about myself with you here.

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Nice to meet all of you! I am with Young Lives Malaysia, trying to make a difference in the lives of refugees/migrant communities through education!

During this lockdown, It has been difficult physically - I actually miss jogging and taking my dog out for walks. But at the same time, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to connect, collaborate and co-create with people all over the world (including all of you!).

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Hello, I live in Bogotá, Bolivar city neighborhood Potosi.

I linked to the
project from the parish, I like social work.
I am part of the
initial team where the project is dreamed, I contribute administratively
generating ideas.
creative ideas to
generate resources.
I forgot, my name is Milena !!

one of my passions is ecology, the creation of God.

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For me it's a pleasure to share with you my experiencies during this lockdown, so I made a video for you guys to explain who I am, and what I'm doing to contribute to this amazing  proyect,  I hope you like it!

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Hello everyone,
"Curious is our situation as children of the Earth. We are here for a short visit and we don't know what for, although sometimes we think we feel it. In the face of daily life, it is not necessary to reflect too much: we are there for others." ( THE WORLD AS I SEE IT Albert Einstein )
My name is Gustavo, I'm from Colombia, South America. I am the General Manager of Young Lives in Colombia. I enjoy my work for young people who want to develop their skills to fulfill their dreams.

Now that we are home, I have been given the opportunity to discover the value of the essential and the power of simplicity. It hasn't been easy to find people for a long time, but technological means like this make us closer to the distant and the unknown. It is a pleasure to hear from each one of you.
Mail: g.lopez@younglivesbyfondacio.com
WA: +57 300 820 6273
Fb: @YoungLivesLatam

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Hello everybody,
My name is Gabrielle and I currently am in Colombia to do my internship for the end of my Master in Development Economics.
I hope this international project will be developed in all our countries where YL is present, and that we could speak with people in all this countries to find a real interculturality.

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Hello,
I am in the team Young Lives  Colombia. I follow the students teaching personal development. I feel very happy to be in this project.
During the lockdown, I rescue all the positive things such as the family union and the emergence of skills in each of everyone of the members of the family nucleus to solve this new circumstances. We have been very recursive. Not everything can be positive, but the bad things strengthen us like human beings. The hardest was the confinement.
Bye bye!