For years, concerned organizations and policy makers have sought ways to address the issue of Indian youth being stereotyped as delinquents. Debates and conferences have been held, reports have been written and distributed, and goals have been set. But the goals have not been achieved and it is time to sound an alarm.

 

There are findings that confirm social ills thrive on instability, poverty and lack of employment opportunities. However, it is clear the attention placed by the authorities and the media is on violence and not on poverty and instability. The attention is often on the effects, and not on the causes.

 

The Indian community has already lost a few generations of their young people and will continue to lose them. It is time that it is realized that we are no longer dealing of a criminal here but with a sub-culture that is producing them.

 

To understand youth, we realize, we must understand and address the social problems of the family, the community, the schools, media and peers and the interaction of these systems.

 

Research and reflection point to the importance of adult mentoring, the support of community, empowerment and the opportunity to succeed. When, added to such a foundation, the values of the youth are congruent, youth are not at risk. When they are incongruent, as we find increasingly in our society, youth are at risk.

 

Without forceful and focused action, this troubling trends will worsen. Our youth need the tools and guidance to successfully navigate through an increasingly challenging world. They need to hear from parents and others that they are loved, valued and are worthy individuals.

 

Set against this backdrop, a group of professional Indians from different backgrounds and different parts of the country got together to endorse the need for an NGO to be the catalyst to tthis change. Thus evolved the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF), a non-profitable, non-political and non-governmental organization.

There are more things that distinguish the the office bearers of MIYDF from one another than make them similar. Yet, at the core, they are Indians who aspire to elevate their community to be at par with other communities.

 

 

 

The Founder

 

The increasing need for an organization that will exclusively focus on the issues of the Indian Youth with a view to providing them with the opportunity to build a secure and bright future is the background and scenario that prompted its founder Mr.SA.Vigneswaran, Ex.Parlimentary Secretary for the Ministry of Youth and Sports and also the Ex.MIC National Youth Leader to take the necessary steps that led to the formation of the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF) as an NGO.

 

The founder's aspirations are to ensure that the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation be the catalyst that continuously generates and sustains the relevant focus and attention to the current issues and circumstances that are hampering the progress and development of the Indian Youth in the attainment of their personal aims, ambitions and the long term standing of the Indian community in Malaysia.

 

His exposure and experience in working successfully with the Indian Youth at a national level over the last 8 years also provided the exposure and experience to formulate a Foundation. The By Laws of the Foundation contain the essence of What, How and When change is to be initiated and sustained to achieve the vision and mission of the Foundation and through it the Indian Community.