The Playground’s Journey of Joy

KIWANIS MALAYSIA’S SERVICE LEADERSHIP CONVENTION 2025 SPOTLIGHTS AI AND SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUTHS KUALA LUMPUR, 31 May 2025 - Kiwanis Malaysia organized the Service Leadership Program (SLP) Convention 2025, today at the Tree Top International School in Segambut which brought together some 60 participants from Penang and the Klang Valley. The theme was, Rise of the Social MedAI which featured presenters and facilitators such as Bichi Mao (social media influencer), Microsoft and Makchic. Governor of Kiwanis Malaysia, Olivia Chin was delighted to welcome all participants ranging from 8 to 17 years of age, “The Kiwanis Service Leadership Program (SLP) is a global initiative aimed at empowering youth by fostering leadership, character development, and a strong commitment to community service. This is another way we serve the children of the world, by equipping them with the leadership skills to carry out community service in their schools and communities.” Internationally, Kiwanis has several types of clubs specifically for children, young adults and neurodivergent adults to do community service guided by Kiwanis clubs that sponsor them. In Malaysia, there are a total of 27 SLP clubs. This convention brought together participants from K Kids (ages 8 to 12 years) and Key Clubs (15 to 17 years) with the intention of fostering networking between the different clubs around the country whilst honing new skills to equip them as they carry out their community service projects. The first half of the convention was conducted for all participants and their accompanying teachers and advisors. A keynote address was delivered by Olive Yong, Founder of Bichi Mao, who spoke on How Social Media Content Builds Community. She was joined by Yap Wee Lim, CEO of Niki Studios. Both shared an entertaining keynote address on how Olive Yong turned her passion into a successful business and the strategies behind it. Next, the Governor for Key Club in the Philippines, dialed in via Zoom to address the participants and share on the benefits of the global connections of being part of Kiwanis’ SLP clubs. Each club that attended was also given the opportunity to present to all the participants about the community service work they were doing in their clubs and their future plans. This was especially beneficial for them to learn from each other. After the lunch break, the participants were broken into groups according to their age groups for more specific sessions. The K Kids were treated to an Hour of Coding led by Daphne Choong, Senior Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft alongside volunteers from Microsoft and PyLadies (website), an international mentorship group with a focus on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community. The children were taught how to do coding in Minecraft. The Key Club participants were hosted by Shirlyn Lim, a mental health speaker who taught them on how to make engaging social media videos using CapCut in ways that felt most comfortable for them. Following the breakout session, Liyana Taff, CEO of Makchic (website) conducted a 40 minute session on “Safe Touch” - An introduction to consent, personal safety and body boundaries. She led the topic confidently, getting good responses and engagement from all the participants. Besides developing youth, Kiwanis throughout the world takes youth protection quite seriously hence highlighting this topic to the participants. The day came to a close as Sekolah Kebangsaan Methodist Klang won the award for Best Report - K Kids and Methodist Boys School, Penang clinched the award for Best Report - Key Club. All participants received certificates of participation which were presented to them by Rodney Rash Leo, Lieutenant Governor for Division 1, Kiwanis Malaysia and Desiree Kaur, SLP Chair, Kiwanis Malaysia. The organizers also expressed their heartfelt appreciation to all who volunteered their time for this event and the generous sponsors; Tree Top International School who sponsored the venue and SEN Enrichment Care Centre for sponsoring goodie bags and printing of certificates.

Kiwanis Malaysia District’s Mid Term on 3 May 2025. A very engaging session for Kiwanians across 5 Divisions in Malaysia. #Kiwanis #Volunteer #MakingADifference #KiwanisTTDI #Kiwanis #JoinKiwanis #MidTerm