“If not me, who? If not now, when?”, is the slogan behind Paint the World, a movement organised by the youth for the youth to help the under-priviledge.
What may seem small but in the long run, the huge outcome includes youth learning independency, organisation skills, communication skills, soft skills implemented, confidence building, empathy, creativity, optimism and many more.
Founded by two young philanthropist, Aziza Aznizan, 21 from Malaysia and Lika Torikashvili, 20 of Georgia – the two best friends met in United World College of Atlantic, United Kingdom in August 2014.
In the recent event, they both arrived at the Kingdom of Swaziland, marking their three years since starting the spread of their Non-governmental Organisation on May 13.
Both Aniza and Lika, with collaborations between United World College of Waterford Kahmbala Swaziland and Limkokwing University of Swaziland did a week long of Paint the World activities.
With the wheels of the bus rolling the cities of Swaziland, carrying youths with colourful balloons to spread happiness in orphanages and under-priviledge homes including painting homes in the outskirts of Mbabane, Swaziland, thus marking their next success with ‘Paint the World’ venturing into Africa.
Being in different country and continent, Paint the World curates their programme according to the difference of culture and traditions.
“In Swaziland, the Catholicism plays a huge role in the society thus, our friends there are religious and therefore, at each event they play question games to teach children about their religion and they sing religious songs.
“One of my favourite moments in Swaziland was observing how talented the Africans are at singing acapella, dancing, and making instrument noises using their mouth and body. No guitar was needed! It was like I was standing in a Bollywood film and everyone started to dance the same steps and sing acapella on rhythm and it sounds AMAZING!”, shared Aziza on her recent excursion in Swaziland.
On May 15, Aniza and Lika hosted a meeting with their respective ambassadors at their Embassies. The meeting saw Embassy of Georgia and Malaysia in the Republic of South Africa, alongside H.E. Dato’Badruddin AB. Rahman, High Commissioner of Malaysia, Kirtan Bhana, CEO of “Diplomatic Society” and Marius Heyns, the Chairman of South Africa-Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Lika and Aziza during the meeting, brief on “Paint the World” and pointed out that the movement aims at mobilising youth voluntarism in acts of charity and encouragement, to stand in solidarity with various vulnerable groups of society.
The Ambassador of Georgia and High Commissioner of Malaysia expressed words of gratitude towards the two girls who are representatives of the “Paint the World” movement and committed to their support in this noble endeavour.
Aside from that, their efforts were noticed by the royal family of Swaziland and they were invited by Prince Majaha, son of King Mswati to talk about Paint the World Swaziland.
All in all, it was a huge success for Paint the World, and Lika and Aziza once again did not allow the boundaries of different culture in Africa to stop them from spreading what they believe in – world peace.
“Africans, Asians, Europeans, we see no difference between ourselves when we do Paint the World, the main thing is that we have one goal which is to unite youth through charity and to spread happiness.”, shared Aziza.
Among the goals Paint the World tries to reach is to have a life-changing moment at each event. “May it be for the people we give to, or one of our own members who has a change of heart and finally opened their eyes to the world of giving, sharing, caring and loving, we know that each event plays a huge role in the long run in someone’s life”, Anika with hope said.
She added, “When you get in a car with ten friends, balloons and a guitar, and you meet people of different walks of life who are happier than you but have less than you, it makes you feel like you have to appreciate every little thing you have in life.”.
Paint the World makes the effort to hold an event in Kuching or Miri every 2 to 3 months. While studying overseas, the members and friends of Aziza, Clinton Chua and Clarissa Wee would organise road trips, christmas carols, zumba, and visits to autistic and orphanage centers.
According to Aziza, youths who are interested in joining Paint the World can start by gathering friends, hunt down orphanages, old folks home, cancer society in your own city, bring balloons and musical instruments – conduct activities with them. “Paint the World is NOT something you “join” and “not join”. It’s something YOU make. We want you to feel like Paint the World is YOU”
Those who have done so, may send the pictures to Paint the World Facebook page. “We are all young and full of energy, we are the future generation. No matter who you are or where you are, we are happy to work with you because it is US who are going to be in charge of our country very soon, is it not? And we need people like you to shine bright and help make the world a better place, starting from our very own home!”, a very energetic Aziza said.
The movement was started in Georgia by Lika, then spread to Malaysia by Aziza and has now branches in Oman, France, United Kingdom and Hong Kong.
The annual Paint the World Concert is planned to take place on September 9 in Kuching Sarawak this year with collaboration from Technology College Sarawak and the ongoing support from YB Dato’ Karim.
