PELITA YOUTH WORKSHOP 24 – 26 May 2022

The 3-days PELITA youth workshop aimed at fostering the role of youths in terrorism prevention efforts especially in countering terrorist narratives and hate speech as well as increasing their level of awareness on the importance of the principles of social cohesion, especially among their peers.

28 students from local public and private higher education institutions such as UUM, UM, UKM, UoW, UniRazak and more participated in the program.

The workshop resulted in a collaborative relationship between SEARCCT and its collaborator, UNDP, with the participants to produce ‘Positive Messaging’ and ‘Community Resilience’ themed counter-narratives for digital and social media platforms.

The program was designed to be interactive, with less lectures in order to be more appealing for the young crowd. 2 interactive speaking sessions were conducted by Thomas Koruth Samuel (UN Consultant), Zan Azlee & Sheril Bustaman (Fat Bidin Media) to provide the participants the required knowledge on PVE, the role of the youth in PVE as well as the importance of youth in counter messaging efforts.

The breakout sessions with the participants were insightful, fun and emotional. The participants were given several tasks which they delivered well. Among the tasks given were poster designing and creative performance which revolved around the theme of positive messaging, focusing on countering online hate speech.

PVE, content creation and experts who regularly work with youth were brought in as facilitators – Adlyss Adnan (UNDP), Dr Nurul Miza (IIUM lecturer, psychologist), Asrul Daniel Ahmed (Director, DSCD, SEARCCT) and Pa Arul Malar (Asst. Director, DSCD, SEARCCT) were among the facilitators who guided their respective groups in delivering the breakout task assigned to them.

The participants were given a safe space to voice out their views on matters that they are passionate about; they also educated the adults on the latest trends of the digital world, providing valuable insights to the current world of the majority urban youth community.