It’s hard to comprehend that 2010 is coming to a close when I feel like I haven’t done enough. 2010 is a pretty tough year juggling with limited financial resources, work, study, travels, conferences and my practicum as a (real) teacher in two secondary schools. I think the biggest challenge was learning to say, “No”.

The year started with me quitting my job at the Teaching and Educational Development Institute and accepting my offer to do my Grad Dip in Education. I took a trip back home after 2 years not being home and it was a pretty surreal experience in an odd kind of way. Visiting relatives and friends really brings me back down to Earth where I came from and how much I’ve changed and developed over the years.


On my way back to my hometown, Kuching (Malaysia) on the island of Borneo, I met a Swedish backpacker and for 2 weeks, I played the double role of tourist and tour-guide with him. We visited the 2nd oldest rainforest in the world, rock climbed, skim boarded, caved, and did visited a number of places in Borneo that I’ve always wanted to visit.





I came back to Brisbane to start my uni. I missed the first week, which the lecturers weren’t impressed by, and to make matters worse, three weeks later, I had to take another 2 weeks off and flew to the United States for 3 weeks. I travelled through LA, San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago where I worked at the Inspire USA Foundation, attended the 2010 Non-profit Technology Conference and Global Engagement Summit 2010. I met some of the most innovative and deeply inspiring people who left a really deep indent in my life. I also made some of the best experiences and learned some lessons I would have never learnt through watching @JackHeath while working at Inspire USA.


Coming back from the USA, I went straight to teach at a middle school. It was exhausting in every sense of the word, but the experience was unforgettable. Watching the kids learn and grow, and seeing them cry on my last day broke my heart, but makes me appreciate the influence we all have in the lives of the people we meet.


June/July was filled with catching up with friends, presenting at a number of conferences and workshops, and flying around Australia. I was also rushing to finish all my assignments at this stage, having missed 3 out of 6 weeks of my first uni semester.


August/September was an eventful month. I was selected to be an Advisory Board for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s PlanBig, I presented at a record number of workshops, was back at uni and it was at this point I really struggled juggling with uni, work and life in general. However, come September/October, I spent the entire two months teaching at a high school. It was a totally different experience, especially when the gap between the age of the scholars and mine isn’t big, and most of them look older than me! I found that a lot of these students look up to us as role models, and whenever they get the time, they’ve got plenty of questions about life to ask. It was hard to draw the line especially when in a school setting, there is a strong hierarchical gap between student vs teachers, even if the school likes to believe that it’s a “community”.


November and December were pretty much flying months. I spent on average once every week on a plane, but I attended and presented at two very interesting conferences (in controversial ways) and a symposium. There are so many events that I am thankful for including but limited to being a part of To Mama With Love and Epic Thanks, meeting two very important people in my life, having a very compassionate and supportive mentor, and being offered opportunities after opportunities.





I am sure I’ve left out a lot of details but it feels like so much has happened but at the same time, not. 2010 has definitely brought me to places I never thought I would be, but its an incredible year filled with pain, disappointments, and struggles, which have given me more patience, love, hope, support and determination. It’s really hard to thank everyone individually, but I feel like I have to because everyone that I have come in contact with has shared with me their stories, their dreams, hope and determination in some ways, and I can’t thank you enough for being a part of my life, and being my source of hope, love and catalyst when I most needed them and even when I don’t need them.


I apologise if I have offended anyone, whether directly or indirectly, and I can only hope that we can talk things out. I hope there’s none, but just in case! :-) Here’s to 2011!

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I was asked to speak at the International Volunteering Day Symposium 2010 eons ago (well, about a month ago) by the Department of Communities on Online Volunteering, and here’s just a quick summary of my spill. I found it challenging to first of all define what “online volunteering” means and second of all, where do you draw the line? The whole idea of the symposium / workshop is to build the capacity of non-profit organisations within Queensland to engage young people, families and culturally diverse volunteers, and how to expand the role of volunteering through online medium.


And funny enough, I was (or am?) a culturally diverse volunteer myself, and actually started volunteering here in Australia 5 years ago through the internet because I couldn’t speak the language, couldn’t understand the accent and didn’t grasp the sense of humour at all. What a change it has been!


It’s hard to come to a symposium / workshop and be expected to go back to your organisation and starts something new, because change within an organisation requires not only the way we do things, but the way we think, so hopefully, my presentation actually plants a seed of inspiration in changing the way you think, because I sure as hell don’t want to change the way you do things first up. Only when you change the way you think, can you design with your stakeholders, systems that actually work.


I’m going to use two organisations that I absolutely love, and is affiliated with. Both of these, in my opinion, does volunteering beyond the boundaries of geographical locations, really well. One’s from an international perspective and the other from a local context.


I was in Atlanta earlier this year for the 2010 Non-Profit Technology Conference when I met @StaceyMonk, the founder of Epic Change, and in my opinion, one of the emerging leaders in social change. Epic Change is an organisation that really encapsulates what a non-profit / community organisation should be like. Its mission is to aplifies the voices and impact of grassroots changemakers and social entrepreneurs around the world through sharing their stories in innovative, creative and profitable ways.


So, through Stacey, she introduced me to deeply inspiring woman called @MamaLucy, a chicken farmer in Tanzania who used up all her savings to build the first school in her village (read her story). Not long after coming back from the US, I received a tweet from Stacey, with an invitation to be a part of a project. Through a simple tweet, she gathered 70 incredible and influential changemakers in their own rights from around the world. She sent an email to all 70 of us, simply asking us to state who we are, how we can help and schedule a chat. Simple requests that takes away the usual 4 pages forms that prospective volunteers have to fill out when they want to volunteer for any organisation.


This to me, is incredibly powerful, because this is what the essence of volunteering should be about – it doesn’t matter what your background is, as long as you have the desire to give back, bring about change, you’re in. It removes the barriers for everyone, to participate equally regardless of your dis/abilities, cultural background and/or geographical location.


Within 2 weeks, all 70 volunteers that Stacey has gathered worked together to create To Mama With Love, one of the most innovative and creative social good / social media campaigns, according to Mashable – one of the world’s largest and most recognised news website.


The beautiful thing about this campaign is, everyone involved were volunteers who have never met each other before. We’re all supporters of Epic Change and regardless of our backgrounds, came together to create a successful campaign. A few months later, we joined forces again to create another campaign, Epic Thanks on Thanksgiving Day.


The next organisation is the Inspire Foundation, an Australian non-profit organisation that utilises information communication technology to improve the mental health and well-being of young Australians with the mission of helping millions of young people lead happier lives. Inspire’s flagship program is ReachOut.com, a resource and support website for young people to increase their understanding of mental health, promote resilience and help-seeking behaviour.


ReachOut.com is staffed by not-so-young people, but the content of the website is created by young people, predominantly volunteers. Their head office is in Sydney, and in order to do this, they have to do everything online, which means that a lot of the content created on the website is done by young people across the nation and the only way of communication is through the internet. Volunteers also provide feedback on marketing campaigns and website design, and provide admin assistance on some levels. Sometimes, volunteers are also involved as peer researchers and online forum facilitators.


I think we still have a long way to go in terms of volunteering within Australia. We have not even got the definition of volunteering correct yet (refer to Volunteering Australia’s standards of volunteering). We also need to bring back the essence of volunteering without discriminating those from different backgrounds and dis/abilities. We’ve still got a long way to go in reducing red tapes for everyone to participate, appreciating the immense power of humanity and removing our tall poppy syndrome. We also need to avoid being caught up with the “lack of resources and funding” chant, and stop dreaming about, “if only I have the technology”, but think about how you can use the existing technology that’s at your hand reach.


So, I leave you with this quote, in the hope that I’ve changed, in some ways, the way you think about how young people work. We lived in an era where the physical and virtual world weave together, and the challenge isn’t so much making volunteering “online”, but to look at the online medium and how we can breakdown the existing barriers for more people to participate equally.

“Volunteering via the internet isn’t about connecting cold, inanimate machines called computers, but is really about an all inclusive concept, that eliminates barriers and borders to bring people, wether of varying religions, races, ethnicities, and/or abilities together, whether from around the corner or the world, to help non-profit organisations fulfil their mission.” – Randy Tyler, 2003, Macdonald Youth Services

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It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US and I know we don’t celebrate it over here in Australia, but I still think its equally important for us to be thankful for the things that we have and the things that we don’t have.


I’ve always been one that have taken things, people and circumstances for granted – not that I grew up in luxury, but I have never really thought about how much I have. But since Ryan’s death, I’ve started to do a lot more reflections at the end of each year, and make sure I thank, apologise and/or show my love and appreciation to the people who have been integral part of who I’ve become in that year.


To be where I’m at right now, I am thankful for many, many things; and many, many people but beyond all that, I am thankful to be alive and a part of humanity. I am thankful for my ability to love, and be loved, and the abundant opportunities I have in front of me to change my own world and the world of others.


But most of all, these few weeks, I am thankful for the people who have shared with me their stories of hardship, their struggle with mental illness and suicide, and the adversities that they’ve been through. These stories give me hope, strength and serve as a catalyst for me to do something more to make this place a better place for more people.


Most of all, I am thankful that @StaceyMonk invited me to be a part of #EpicThanks for this year. And this year, #EpicThanks support and celebrate the lives of three extraordinary changemakers around the world, whose dream defy all odds and whose determination makes everything impossible seems possible. Their hopes and dreams for a better future for their community is beyond what many people I know are trying to do, and I am so, so honoured to be supporting their work. I can’t do any justice to their stories so I invite you to take 5 minutes to read their stories and trust me, your day will be instantly better.


That aside, today, I am so thankful for you, for reading this blog, keeping it alive, giving me feedback, further thoughts and challenging status quo. I am thankful for all the people who have walked into my life and leaves an inspiring, lasting indent in my life in many years to come. I’ve created a thank you card for all of you, for being my hope, my dreams, my inspiration, my support and my catalyst in all the things that I do.





So, click on the image above, and head over to #EpicThanks and make a thank you card or note for all the people or the things you are thankful for, and together, let’s celebrate the work of these three amazing, amazing change makers.


I know its easy to read this and then leave it at that, but I hope that my plea will move you to click over and create a thank you note. This world is a better place because of you. :-)


Thank you so much for being such an important part of my life, and such an inspiration to me and all the things that I do, and the way I live my life. Thanks to all those who have shared with me their stories – of hardship, struggle, adversities, love, hope, perseverance and most of all, resilience. Here’s my love to you.

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I was invited to sit in a staff meeting of a large non-profit organisation heavily funded by the federal government working on building communities and bridging gaps in the community. I spent about an hour talking to them about what I do and my beliefs as well as answering all their questions.


One of the leaders of the organisations mentioned something along the lines of, “Young people like you can get things done rather easily and quickly, but for old people like us, we need structures so all this talk about innovation isn’t going to work for us”. What she said later was what infuriated me. In her words, “We can talk about being creative and innovative in solving social issues, but we have obligations to the government. For example, this morning, while I was driving here, I was thinking about all these really creative stuff I could do for but then I had to stop because I have to think about all these reporting I gotta do”.


Of course, at this point, I had a go at her quite diplomatically. I think many people forget that community organisation exists because of community needs, and at the end of the day, that is what we’re for – not the money. I do know that we need to be talking about practicality and all that but at the end of the day, we need to understand the real role of a community organisation.


Creative and innovation solutions and funding obligations are mutually exclusive. As more and more community organisations fight for funding, more and more organisations change their structure, their programs, their work – the way they think and the way they work in order to fulfill the funding requirements and get the money. It’s a shame because we think that its OK but if these funders know what they’re talking about or know what you do – the community sector wouldn’t have existed.


It frustrates me because when I told this to a few of my friends, there are conflicting views and although I see both side of the story, I really do not believe that community sector should be focusing on capital and money, because we were born out of altruism, love and care. I know that its hard to get things done without money, but if money determines how we response to social issues, we’re quite doomed because we will always have boundaries to the way we do things. When the money talk starts, the thinking stops.


I really encourage people and executives to bring back the core of community organisations – voice your disagreements when something isn’t right. Don’t fall for the money because if it doesn’t align with your values and the real purpose of your existence, they are dirty money and you should be impolite and be daring to voice your opinions and encourage them to change their guidelines. Although funding guidelines are needed, we as community sector need to keep these guidelines informed, relevant and actually beneficial – not just adapt ourselves. There’s just so much we could adapt, and the more we adapt to what others want us to be good at, the less we are going to progress because the people who caused these issues will be the one guiding us in the end.


Rant over.

This post was reproduced and appeared in the October newsletter and the website of SiiWA.

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A few months ago, I was invited to be a part of a discussion with a group of social innovators from around the world discussing about what we believe is going to be a trigger for a massive global transformation. We call this the Emergent Transformation. It’s going to change how humans do thing, especially young people, utilising technology to its maximum potential.

I have often spoken about acknowledging human as an individual full of potentials, and that we have more resources than we think we do. We are more hyperconnected than we have ever been but many of us still view these hyperconnections as mere relationships. We live in an incredibly small world – the more people we know, the smaller the world become. If you look at this hyperconnectedness, it seems as though its just a big ball of connections, but if we actually map the skills, talents and resource that each of this connection that we have access to, we will unveil some incredible asset that we have access to right at the palm of our hands.


This is exactly how multilevel marketers make their money – in fact, a multilevel marketer once told me, if you scroll through your mobile phone and call each of your contacts, you’ll be surprised by the amount of assets that you actually have. And tapping into our networks isn’t new either if we know about Asset-based Community Development (ABCD). Asset-based community development (ABCD) is a methodology that seeks to uncover and utilize the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. The basic tenet is that a capacities-focused approach is more likely to empower the community and therefore mobilize citizens to create positive and meaningful change from within.


And based on ABCD, Nathaniel Whittemore, blogger on Social Entrepreneurship at Change.org is working on a start-up called Assetmap, an online platform that helps individuals discover and leverage resources directly from the community around them.


We’re also seeing more and more innovation in this area when it comes to start-ups, collaborative projects and entrepreneurship. People are tapping into their social capital to help make things happen, take for example, To Mama With Love. It’s a collaborative art project put together by a group of over 70 individuals from all around the world from Editor of Social Edge to an ordinary young person like me! All 70 individuals were invited, and is friends with Stacey Monk, founder of Epic Change.


We’re also seeing startups like Supercool School that seeks to challenge the traditional view of education being dominated and only accessible through structured institutions. There’s also PlanBig, an online platform for people to share their ideas and make them happen. PlanBig is a great place to crowdsource resources, ideas, thoughts and feedback from its online community to launch your idea.


We’re seeing a shift, and we have to create a shift of thinking of social networks for social good. How are we able to leverage these connections so that people can get better access to knowledge, resources and wisdom to bridge the gaps in addressing social issues. We need to think about how can we unleash these human capacity we have access to and look at collaboration in new ways. We need to view each individual as unique and has something to contribute. We need to break down the barriers we have to more meaningful collaboration and ways of working together, whether directly or indirectly. It is at this convergences that we see the best of innovations occurring.


However, there still lack a brand for this form of rhizomatic ways of working and I believe given a brand to these projects, enterprises, startups or organisations will allow us to study this new ventures better. It will also make visible the process of these ventures, and allow better publicity, understanding and access for us to bring this ventures forward.


I believe that these kind of ventures will dominate the ways startup work and how we organise social change in the future. We will see a lot more social innovations in this sphere and its worth keeping an eye out. It will also change the way traditional organisations work, especially how they engage their audiences. It also holds a lot of potential in the ways we look at addressing social issues and creating a sustainable world.


It will contribute to the already shifting ways of value creation and perception of “value” in a highly social and online world. Their ventures aren’t about the money or how to earn money, its about how can we add value to improving human lives.


So, keep an eye our for this sphere (what we call Emergent Transformation) – check out the blog – and if you like to read more about this, its worth watching these videos and visiting these sites:

New Era of Human Capacity Startups by Nathaniel Whittemore


Implications of Startups That Exist to Maximize Abundant Social Capital Instead of Scarce Economic Capital by Max Marmer

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Speaking of stories in my previous post, here’s a story I have wanted to share. This email arrived in my inbox the night I gave a presentation at a local TAFE in Brisbane.


(TAFE is a vocational education institute in Australia.)

I’ve been talking about this idea for a few weeks now and its been on my mind for quite some time. Young men makes up 4 out of 5 of all suicide, and suicide remains the leading cause of death amongst young people. Suicide is the number 1 cause of death for men under the age of 34 and there is a lack of support that addresses young men’s needs and nature. I really wanted to change this, and change the culture of “real men”. I shared this at a conference, at a few other events I have presented and last week at a TAFE.


Everyone were really supportive of the idea and everyone bombarded me with ideas and stories and I received another half a dozen of emails from the audience.


I got this email from one of the audience, and with his permission, here is his story:

So i grew up down in Melb, the youngest of 3 boys, with my parents migrating from Scotland to start their family. Parents still together til this day, and I had a very stable happy childhood. Throughout school, i was well liked by my fellow students and didn’t receive much bullying (I wasn’t out at school, as i wasn’t sure yet). I guess some students thought i was gay, and the occasional taunt was thrown around, but i had a good friendship group and didn’t let it bother me to much.
Finishing school at year 11, i went to work in the hospitality industry and figured out that i was gay. I was happy enough with my sexuality, just keeping it to myself and a few close friends.


Just after i’d turned 17, i had meet my first boyfriend (25yrs old), who seemed great to start off with, i’d meet him through the internet. We proceeded to date for a while and began a relationship. Not to my knowledge at the time, but he was an ex con, and had been in and out of jail. I was experimenting with drugs, due to his influence. About 2 months into the relationship he started to become very possessive and violent. He had been kicked out of his share house and was staying with me at my parents. One night after another argument, he had taken my car and i had to get my dad to pick me up from work, when we got home my parents wanted to know what was going on. So i proceeded to tell them I was gay, that the guy staying with us was my boyfriend and he was very physically abusive towards me, and that i was using drugs fairly heavily.


It was a lot for them to take, dad being strict catholic and quite reserved, it was a big shock to him, but he was more concerned that someone was hurting his son. That night my boyfriend had come back with my car and asked me to meet with him, i did to and another beating occurred. I ended up in hospital again, called my parents and requested them to leave a bag of my clothes out the front of the house, as i was leaving to go to (South Australia) SA with Tim. This was extremely hard for my parents to deal with, but they obliged and under Tim’s mental control, i left with him to SA. For the next few months we moved from SA – Syd – Melb, the beating were occurring a few times a week. I was to scared to leave and felt completely at a loss.


On my 18th birthday, i was beaten on and off for about 12 hours, had an ambulance called and them was told to tell them that i didn’t need them. After another hour or so, Tim had called a friend to take me to the hospital. I spent the remained or my 18th in the Hospital, then headed back to my parents. I once again went back with Tim and the abuse continued. A few months later, we had just rented a place together and i was moving the remainder of my stuff out of my parents. By this stage neither of my brother or my father was talking to me, due to the fact i kept going back to Tim. I didn’t know what i was doing, i was scared for me, for my family and friends, and using drugs daily.


After leaving my parents for the last time, i then got into another argument with Tim, and it was then that i decided the only way to get away from him, was to take my own life, i bought as much heroin as i could and went to the new apartment we were moving into (Tim wasn’t there) i wrote a number of suicide notes to members of my family and friends, i took over $200 worth of Heroin, thinking it would kill me. Thankfully it didn’t. Tim had turned up after around an hour or so, after me taking the drugs, i was still alive, but very out of it. He proceeded to beat me, kick me down 3 flights of stairs, stripped me naked and made me walk down Fitzroy St, St Kilda (an extremely busy restaurant/cafe/bar precinct in Melb), whilst i was walking naked down the road, blood pouring out of me, he was behind me calling me every horrible name under the sun, whilst everyone seemed to laugh. It was at the last restaurant of the street, (before we were in darkness where i believed he would finish me off), that 2 waiters ran out of the restaurant and covered me in a table cloth and the police and ambulance came screaming down the street. Tim was arrested and jailed for 6 months, I was taken to Hospital, then moved in with my aunt for a few weeks, then back to my parents.


Shortly after being back at home, me and mum saw a councillor, and he put me in touch with a group called young and gay, a peer support group for young men coming out to the community, ran by the VAC (Vic Aids Counsel). This gave me the break i needed and Tim was safely away from me. I began to make new friends and got good jobs. The next 4 years were spent partying, working and sleeping around. I guess it all made me feel better about myself. Around my 21st, i got into my second serious relationship, with a great guy, moved to Geelong and made a life with him, he got me off the gear and got my life on track. After a cpl of years together, we moved on. It was then i decided to move to Brisbane, where a good girlfriend of mine was living. I made the move and continued working in hospitality.


Always in the back of my mind I’ve thought i wished there was someone who i could have connected with and seeked help/advice from during my difficult period with Tim. After finally having enough of hospitality, i decided i’d do what i’d wanted to for years and get into an industry where i can help young ppl in need, possible in the situation i was in. So I decided to take on studying Dip of Youth Work. Which leads me to where i’m at today.


I’m now a very happy confident, fun loving gay man. Who would like to try and make a different to the gay youth of today, and let them know that its OK to be gay and show them that you can make life what you want it to be, even after tough times. Also to break down the sterotypes of gay men and to try to stop homophobia in high schools and the general community. My past is my past and is behind me now, i wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but it made me the man i am today.

I spent 3 hours speaking to this group of young people about social change and action. These are people who have battled some serious issues in their life ranging from rape to homelessness, but they are also people who have managed to turn their adversities into inspiration to continue their studies at TAFE so that they can “give back to the community”.


We also spoke about community organising and how we can activate people around us to bring about action, in a hyperconnected world. We also spoke about small actions and big action, and what these mean to the big picture of “social change” and we spoke about the power of inspirations and unreasonable ideas.


I received an email from one of the girls who have gone on to organise a petition for more support for young mum. The guy who sent me the above email has gone on to write a letter to the producer of Neighbours (a popular Australian TV show). The show recently has a “men’s club” where the rules are, real men do not talk about emotions and do not speak about tough times.


What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.


*Name changed to protect identity.


If you’re going through a tough time, get help:
Reach Out – info on issues youth faces
Kids Helpline – 24 hours helpline / web counseling for young people age 25 and below – anonymous and free from Landline and Optus

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