Empowering youth in the UAE

Dubai: Not too many 20-year-olds can boast to be involved in service projects for their community, let alone be the instigator of an organisation that does. Such are the achievements of Korean-American Seaon Shin, the co-founder and CEO of GYEM: Global Youth Empowering Movement.

Shin's GYEM is a movement that aims to empower youth through workshops. Funded solely through sponsorships and donations, these workshops encourage individuals to discover themselves and use their passions to contribute to the betterment of the community through service projects.

However, GYEM isn't Shin's first effort at community-related initiatives.

"I started my own environmental group in August 2009 called e3 [emancipating everyone's earth], where we started recycling projects and campaigns at my school [Deira International School]. The initiative grew, and later branched out to other schools and universities in the country." As e3 became a successful initiative, Shinn was keen on doing more for UAE's youth. "In 2009, my mother [Yunsun Chung-Shin] and I brainstormed on ways to create a network to enable young individuals to discover their true potential as the future of our generation, as well as use their passions to create service projects in their community. Thus, the idea of GYEM was born." The mother-daughter duo later pitched the idea of a ‘Youth Community Centre' to Al Futtaim Group, and subsequently set up their GYEM centre at Dubai Festival Centre.

Discovering

"Through our GYEM workshops, youth not only discover themselves and understand the world and their responsibilities, but also learn what it takes to run and manage your own organisation or service initiative — be it project management, team management, public speaking, or marketing. The outcomes of the workshops and seminars are that the youth start and implement their own service initiatives, which we help nurture into sustainable organisations or ventures."

Shin took a gap year to start this initiative, but is now at university. "We youth are the future, and if we don't have the tools ready to take on the future, then we will be mere sideliners in a beautiful and rapidly changing world."