Youths team up to clean up streets

Varsity students join refugee children in clearing rubbish in Pudu area

TAKING a pro-active approach to combat littering, university students teamed up with Mon refugee children from Myanmar to clean up the Pudu area of Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur.

More than 135 individuals, including Asez volunteers and Mon Refugee Learning Centre staff and students, participated in the clean-up initiative.

Asez is a volunteer group of university students from the Church of God from 175 countries.

Pudu is known for its substantial transient population, a factor that contributes significantly to the litter on its streets.

Volunteers dispersed across a 5km radius, meticulously collecting a variety of waste such as plastic cups, straws, vinyl fragments and cigarette butts.

Their collective effort resulted in the accumulation of 48 bags of waste, each weighing on average 5kg, for a total of 240kg.

Previously, Asez volunteers picked up rubbish in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Petaling Jaya, Cheras and Subang Jaya.

Prior to the Pudu effort, Asez hosted its 7th “Reduce Crime Together” Campaign at Mon Refugee Learning Centre in Pudu, where Asez members taught values of respect, ethics and altruism to the teenage students to reduce instances of violence and crime in schools.

Asez members from South Korea and Mon students cleaning up streets in Pudu.

They also introduced attendees to “Greenship”, a campaign dedicated to combating climate change.

The initiative is to spark a sense of responsibility in the teenagers, encouraging them to actively participate in environmental protection efforts.

“I hope that we will help make our society safer and more peaceful by creating a clean environment through street cleanups,” an Asez official said.

Volunteer Guang Xiong, a Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman student, said, “I will encourage my friends to participate in this kind of environmental protection activity so we can protect our earth together.”

Mon Refugee Learning Centre chairman Nai Thy Wonna commended the Asez team for having a transformative influence on the teenage students, while school monitor Layih Snong acknowledged the enhancement in students’ environmental awareness and interpersonal skills.

The project, an Asez initiative, is supported by Taylor’s Community, which organises monthly programmes with the Mon Refugee School.

Asez cleans up downtown areas, mountains, seas and rivers, in addition to supporting the underprivileged as well as carrying out disaster recovery and relief efforts.

Since June, they have been carrying out the Asez Blue Carbon (ABC) Movement in celebration of World Environment Day on June 5 and World Oceans Day on June 8.

The ABC Movement is an activity to promote the importance of blue carbon and to protect marine ecosystems, which is ultimately aimed at achieving carbon neutrality.

This movement is being actively carried out in various parts of the world, including the United States, South Korea, Peru, India, Nepal and South Africa.

In Malaysia, it was carried out at Tanjung Lipat Beach, Sabah, Sungai Penang and Sungai Kuyoh in Seri Kembangan, Selangor.