It all started with an idea – What if instead of competing for the same pot of funding and resources, people worked together on projects? After all, shouldn’t the focus be on the people that we are all trying to help rather than who gets the credit for it?

Youth Without Borders was founded by an incredibly intelligent bunch of women – Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Lucy Hall and Sheannal (Anthony) Obeyesekere after an Asia Pacific Cities Youth Summit (APCYS) held in Brisbane in 2007. The organisation was established with an aim to focus on ‘project based collaboration’ and youth run, youth led initiatives. The trio, together with another APCYS delegate worked on the business model and kicked off their maiden project – Kamar Buku.

This week, as you might already have guessed, our #FortunateFriday feature is the youth-led and youth-run organisation – Youth Without Borders.

What is Youth Without Borders about?
This inspiring organisation is all about giving youths the opportunity to do something good in their local and wider communities! They strive to help you build personal competences and live a balanced life all whilst getting to know a really great, great, great group of people. Great is an understatement really. They are such a bunch of selfless individuals who truly care for the societies they live in. Not only does the organisation provide the opportunity for young people to work together to positively change the world, they also provide support for young people to make their OWN ideas a reality! Talk about focusing on creating agents of positive change – where every young person has access to the opportunities that enable them to realise their full potential!

Kamar Buku
Youth Without Borders have launched several projects – from feeding the homeless, to promoting young people around the world who are making a positive change in their world, to empowering young migrant women who have recently arrived in to Australia.

My favourite project initiated by Youth Without Borders is Kamar Buku. This initiative brought together nine stakeholders from two countries which provided 2 mobile libraries and one fixed library which serviced 1.3 million people in Indoneisa who previous didn’t have access to a public library!

Imagine not having access to a library! Students in  Australia are so fortunate to have almost one in every suburb. I live in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, and I have 6 libraries within a 10-kilometre radius of my house. More if you include school and university libraries. In Depok, Indonesia, before Youth Without Borders brought Kamar Buku to their city, they had NO PUBLIC LIBRARY! NONE AT ALL! And now, thanks to this brilliant initiative, Depok has 2,500 books in circulation; two mobile libraries operating in Depok and Yogyakarta; and a fixed library location in Jakarta – all operating autonomously. Truly a feat by our very own Australian youths!

It is truly amazing what we are able to achieve when we put our minds to it. All those involved displayed such a high degree of inventiveness and resourcefulness showing what they are each capable of achieving! I can only wonder what great heights they’ll reach in their professional and personal lives.

You can find out more about them and what they do on their website. And if you’re really inspired, inspire our youths to join in their cause to create positive change within our communities!

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Please note, our #FortunateFriday posts are not sponsored. They are chosen to be featured by our team in consultation with our students, and they are chosen because we believe in what they do and want the world to know about them!

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‘Till our next #FortunateFriday feature, have a great week and remember to be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Your act of kindness could create immense change beyond your wildest imagination!