Leadership Incubator 2020

Every year, for the past 10 years, Mendaki Club has been organising its signature programme a Leadership Incubator to groom a new batch of youth (in this case 18-35 year olds) to be innovative and committed community leaders. Having been a former participant, co-lead and now Project Director due to my role in the MClub Exco, I have always believed in the importance of such developmental programmes and the opportunities it brings for those involved. 

LI 2020 seeks to:

1. Develop values, skillsets and leadership opportunities for Malay-Muslim youths,

2. Provide a platform for participants to critically understand contemporary issues and develop creative solutions to challenges, and

3. Establish networking opportunities between participants and tri-sector partners.

This year the programme was launched by Minister Masagos (the new Minister of Social and Family Development) on 4th October 2020 and it is rather apt as our 1st topical workshop was entitled 'Sama-sama in Harmony' with a bigger focus on harmony in the society. Our workshops would be fully online, on Zoom on the weekends of October followed by a 30 hour hackathon on the 1st weekend of November 2020.

Leading such a programme is no easy feat and I am lucky to be supported by a strong team of 9 other youth volunteers. Some are still studying (undergraduates and postgraduates) while several others are talented professionals from the fields of marketing, HR and education. The communications and marketing work is so intense that I am really thankful that there are skills-based volunteers who are willing to commit their time, energy and effort to support this programme. (the zoom background and the social media EDMs and posters were done by them)

The event last Sunday got participants to share their thoughts about harmony though Mentimeter as well as the zoom room chat. One of the speakers, Mr Dannie Hamid, was quite adept at online engagement and was able to share with the participants about the 4 Energy Types (as shared by Carol Tuttle) to get the participants to better understand themselves and others around them so as to be better at creating and maintaining harmony in different environments and situations. The other esteemed speakers were able to share how values and morals were important in ensuring that everyone respects the people around them and go beyond tolerance to care for others from different backgrounds. These ideas were captured in the media release and in this Malay article published on the Malay news site.

https://berita.mediacorp.sg/mobilem/singapura/menghayati-kemurnian-sistem-nilai-masyarakat-penting-dalam/4518062.html?cid=berita-fb&fbclid=IwAR2-JEeMcp8uUn7QRB5Jbz-qW_gl_UyAMDo9dwVTJEZvLjmZkrD0O0uazx0

There are more weekends to go for this event and participants can register on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leadership-incubator-2020-tickets-116860832897?aff=eand&fbclid=IwAR1sRUaiNE0Rx-4uG0Cwea5yfM2DjjOFm-KsMaZcyshRIsMD3N_dq4JHg8I . Do spread the work and check in later for more details about the Hackathon.