A half-day workshop to reimagine the future of AFS in Malaysia was well-attended by stakeholders that included young and older returnees, volunteers and staff past and present.
Facilitated by Antarabudaya Malaysia Advisor Datin Yasmin Marican, the session was conducted at the close of 2022 and sought to explore a future for the organization in the context of a New Malaysia.
A SWOT analysis by teams found that, among others, Antarabudaya Malaysia needed to be rebranded, its values, vision and mission clearly communicated to all stakeholders, its engagement with government agencies to be diversified and new relationships established with relevant ministries, find new collaborators, and a new dedicated structure of the entire organization to be set up from top to bottom.
Workshop participants agreed that Antarabudaya Malaysia’s strength lies in its over 5,000 volunteers and returnees and that reactivating them for support and resource was crucial. Some opined that Malaysia is in crisis at the moment with the rise of extremism, distrust and political, economic, racial and social polarizations but that this very situation presented Antarabudaya Malaysia with a timely opportunity to stay relevant as it could be an enabler towards real unity and harmony in the country.
Next steps include a group to oversee a transformation plan, the rebranding of the organization, resource for funding and the mobilization of returnees.
