SCG’s Asean dream camp: Nurturing a greener future

MANILA, Philippines — SCG is on a mission to help save Mother Earth and is onboarding SCG youth scholars from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to do so.

As part of the Asean Camp, these college students are encouraged to share their ideas during the Sustainable Development Symposium organized by SCG, a Thailand-based conglomerate, over the years.

At these camps, experts help flesh out the ideas into projects that can be implemented by SCG scholars in their own neighborhoods.

More than that, the camp teaches these students skills to help change the world, a neighborhood at a time.

Next year’s camp will be held in Thailand, focusing on leadership skills training and activities that will help students carry out the concept of a circular economy—a system meant to keep products, equipment and infrastructure in use for a longer period through methods such as recycling, reuse, sharing, repair and remanufacturing.

“SCG would want to push for more sustainable projects that can be implemented in the country,” according to the firm’s publicist.

Trash bins made of trash

During the SCG’s ASEAN Camp held last August, Team Philippines proposed making wastebaskets out of plastic waste.

The team, in its proposal, noted that the Philippines is the third largest ocean polluter in the world after China and India and that 39 percent of ocean waste consists of plastic and polystyrene pieces.

The objectives of the project, which they seek to implement in public schools in the Philippines, is not only to lessen plastic waste but rather to improve the knowledge and behavior of the students toward proper waste disposal and encourage the community to sustain the project.

The project would be promoted through social media and school seminars to its target group, students from grades 4 to 6 or aged 10 to 12.

Sharing, fulfilling dreams

Since 2007, SCG has awarded more than 13,000 scholarships under its Sharing the Dream project to children and youth in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Laos, providing financial aid to those who wish to pursue further studies.

In 2018, the Sharing the Dream project was extended to undergraduate scholars from the secondary school scholarship holders who had been accepted to study in fields that will bring benefits to community and their country. The scholarships awarded to them are for their undergraduate studies program, although out. In the same year, 80 undergraduates from six Asean countries were recipients of these scholarships.

SCG is committed to developing competencies and soft skills other than academic excellence, in order to equip the youth to become future leaders who will drive sustainable development in their own respective countries.

As a result, the Sharing the Dream Asean Camp 2019 was arranged for undergraduate scholarship holders from six Asean countries along with the SCG Foundation scholarship holders from Thailand.

The goal of the camp was to strengthen relations between all Asean countries, build unity, and develop capabilities for the youth in order for them to propel growth and development for the ASEAN region in the future.

For more glimpse of what the Sharing the Dream Asean Camp is all about, watch the video below:

For more information, visit the website at https://www.scg.com/landing/index_en.html.