Two Malaysians head to Telenor Youth Summit 2014

• Christine Cheah and Yong Wei Shian to represent Malaysia
• Summit held in conjunction with the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize event

TELENOR Group subsidiary DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd announced that Christine Cheah (pic) and Yong Wei Shian will represent Malaysia at the second edition of the Telenor Youth Summit in Oslo, Norway from Dec 9-11.
 
They were the winners of the local edition of the Telenor Youth Summit challenge, which called for youths to submit current initiatives or innovative ideas on how digital communication can be used to fuel social and economic change.
 
The Telenor Youth Summit is a three-day conference organised by Telenor Group in partnership with the Nobel Peace Centre, DiGi said in a statement.
 
The global initiative will bring together 26 social entrepreneurs – two from each of Telenor’s 13 business units across Asia and Europe, including DiGi – to learn, collaborate, refine and extend the impact of their mobile Internet initiatives.
 
They will also get to participate in the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and other related events including the CNN interview of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, and the Nobel Prize Concert.
 
“Mobile technology is an enabler for socio-economic change … and the summit supports Telenor and DiGi’s mission to enable the Internet for All,” said Joachim Rajaram, head of Communications & Corporate Responsibility at DiGi.
 
“This year would be of particular interest to the youth community as the Peace Prize recipients Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi are apt role models for aspiring youth,” he added.
 
25-year-old news reporter Cheah won for her idea of a mobile app to connect cancer patients via a virtual support group, inspired by her late mother’s own experience as a cancer patient.
 
“Most cancer patients often feel anxious and fearful of the uncertainties in coping with their illness. And most of the time, they are without an outlet where they can share their feelings and emotions, and receive input, support and guidance from others facing this disease.
 
“My idea is to create a unified platform that can help these patients to communicate and provide emotional support to each other. The app will also have a feature that allows doctors and other professional caregivers to be part of the virtual group, giving advice and consultation,” she said.
 
Yong (pic), a 21-year-old pharmacy student, submitted an idea that addresses the issue of food wastage in Malaysia, comprising unconsumed and near-expiry food – contributed by restaurants, bakeries, hoteliers and wholesalers.
 
“Malaysia wastes up to 15,000 tonnes of food daily and this gave me an idea – instead of wasting it, we can use this abundant food surplus to feed the underprivileged.
 
“I envisioned a mobile app that can facilitate food transfers by connecting the respective contributors to soup kitchens and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which provide food for the needy,” he added.
 
For more information on the Telenor Youth Summit 2014, go to http://digi.my/tys.
 
Related Stories:
 
Internet for All: Telenor on the essentials
 
Two Malaysian youth off to Telenor summit, chance to hobnob at Nobel event
 
DiGi’s Internet for All: From ad campaign to corporate mission
 
 
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