IFFAsia Mission Project 2011 (Update 2)

A “one-stop youth centre” hopes to assist homeless youth in the city

Kota Kinabalu – The Church in Sabah has conceptualised the latest “one-stop youth centre” to assist the numerous youth who leave home for the first time and eventually become homeless in big cities like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Dominic Lim, executive secretary of the Archdiocesan Secretariat of Kota Kinabalu shared, it was reported in local newspaper that around thousands of Sabah youth, who went to West Malaysia and Singapore for living and studies, ended up homeless and sleeping on the streets.

He said that Malaysian government statistics show that Sabah is the poorest state in the whole country. Thus, many people, especially the youth from the rural areas are migrating to the city without proper preparation, and most of them are shocked by the cultural differences, and their competency is challenged by the city people.

He added that due to the lack of faith conviction, Catholic youth are easily converted to other religions, usually Islam, and the number of conversion is rapidly increasing today.

Lim shared this information with the students of Institute of Formation, Fondacio Asia (IFFAsia) during the first leg of their mission project in Sabah.

In order to prevent the above situation from becoming worse, the Church is trying many ways, such as organising camps and seminars to create awareness among the young people. The latest development is partnering with some NGOs to set up one-stop youth centres.

Mary Ann Baltazar is a volunteer of Youth-Prep Centre (YPC). She shared with IFFAsia that YPC is a centre that is not bounded by religion, aiming to provide a “point of reference” to the youth, particularly those who are deciding to leave home for the first time.

She said, “All the services that we provide here, including computer and internet service, legal advice, counseling, etc., are all free of charge for them. All we hope for is their best because our vision is ‘One person is of more value than the whole world”.

YPC is managed by the Youth Services of Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd (PKGS) in Kota Kinabalu. PKGS has been actively involved with rural and suburban youth since 2005 through its YouthPREPLink programme. The establishment of the centre is a corporate social responsibility project of the Sabah Credit Corporation in partnership with PKGS.

The centre started its services in March 2010. It is a youth drop-in centre which provides a safe place for the youth to seek professional assistance and support on issues which matter most to them - education, relationships, work, family, financial stability, and ultimately, a better future.

Rodrigo B. Babiera Jr., 22, a Filipino intern of IFFAsia, shared that his community in the Philippines set up a Youth Development Centre in Payatas five years ago. Upon his return, he hopes to help his community upgrade the centre according to this new one-stop centre concept.

He believes that young people today will appreciate this kind of professional services more and this new concept will be able to help the youth to upgrade and better prepare themselves before they go into the working world.

Nina Chan


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