Leadership
Youth Leadership Capacity Building
Khmer Education Buddhist Center is a non-profit and non-partisan
organization in Cambodia. The main goal of this organization focuses
on Youth Leadership Capacity Building. We believe that if we are
planning for future generation, we have to grow leaders.
In this journal, I would like to search some paradigm shifts
from leadership perspective to supplement Youth Leadership Capacity
Building idea.
Leadership means "the ability of an individual to
influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the
effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are
members" (House,
R. J. 2004: page 15). In this concept, the ability of individual
to impact society or community is in need for sustainable development. Leadership doesn’t imply that
it is politically oriented; actually it is a productive instrument
for individual to develop the society. Individuals have to take
accountability of their society as the whole; and in order to
achieve this they need to develop their leadership.
Social betterment comes from individual’s awareness that
cares and improves social and natural environment. Improved social
environment means everybody has adequate four necessities of living
such as cloth, food, shelter and medicine, have fundamental rights
of expression, basic education, belief and social movement. Good
social environment also includes social justice, security, stability,
peace, equity and democracy etc. Improved natural environment
means eco-system; forest, wild lives, air and water are being
concerned and protected. Good natural environment also includes
clean cities and villages, having accessible playing ground yards
and public gardens etc that all these have attracted modern urbanization.
Youths who are recognized as the younger descendants, the
future adults or the seed of humanity should be instructed to
be aware of these both environments. To achieve this value, all
youths have to get education on leadership or
participate in Youth Leadership Capacity Building. Leadership can change the social bad to social good, social poverty to social
welfare, and social gap to social equity etc. Leadership is not politically oriented or political activity as someone has
misunderstood. Leadership here certainly focuses
on social good by social participation.
Here, the crucial methodologies to achieve Youth Leadership Capacity
Building through learning of self-awareness, self-management,
social-awareness, and relationship-management.
• Self-awareness comes from self-exploring
to accept individual’s strength and weakness, to explore
self-potential and self-enlightenment which can affect well in
themselves and others. Self-awareness can be cultivated by meditation
which is the important tool for everybody to release themselves
from stresses and murky mind. When mind is controlled by meditation;
it will be gradually clear, sufficient, subtle, proactive and
applicable. As mind is peaceful, mindful and conscious; it implies
that self-awareness is enriched and empowered.
• Self-management is the result from self-awareness
extending to carry out more responsibilities of the self. This
will be improved more through the alertness of shame and draining
in doing bad deeds. This self-management also comes from the practice
of humility, compassion and loving-kindness by observing five
ethical principles: spreading compassion by avoiding killing or
destroying living lives, conducting right livelihood by avoiding
from stealing or cheating, enhancing family harmony by avoiding
sexual misconduct or love-dishonesty, enriching trust by avoiding
from false, harsh, backbiting and useless speech, cultivating
mindfulness and life’s value by avoiding from addicting
to drugs or intoxication.
• Social-awareness comes from the practice
of social volunteering, participating or social charity. Charity
here inspires youths to communicate with people new productive
messages, to share and help people physically, mentally and financially;
and train to reduce self-centered, strong self-pride, self-interest,
self-indulgence, self-ego and self-attachment.
• Relationship-management is the capacity
of making a better environment in social diversity which has been
tightly interwoven. Invididuals can extend their knowledge boundary
through effective interaction between child and parent, student
and teacher, friend and friend, follower and spiritual teacher,
citizenship and national law. It is original interdependent as
the social mould and relativity.
The practicing of self-awareness, self-management, and social-awareness
can lead to effective relationship-management that is the higher
achievement, the prestige of Leadership Capacity Building.
Through the various projects and activities of Youth Education
Buddhist Center can ensure the betterment of Youth Leadership Capacity Building. Below is our present interim works:
OUR ACTIVITIES
• Dhammacarika Youth Camp Project has been
opening in schools and public gatherings.
• Dhammacarika Ordination Youth Camp Project has been opening in the temples to give them space to practice
strictly around 10 to 15 days in one place.
• Youth Ceremony offers them space to join
ceremonies and pay gratitude to their ancestors as well as Cambodian
past heroes or heroines.
• Voice for Youth Radio provides them
new updated information relating world view, globalization, transnational
culture and technology especially the applied Dhamma teachings.
• Games and Sports for Youth inspires them
to get away from associating with gangsters, addicting drugs and
make quarrels; and finding justice by learning from fair competition
of athletic games.
• Youth Volunteerism recruits them to do
some fieldwork useful for society as a whole such as cleaning
public schools or parks, managing ceremonies or other necessary
public needs and events.
