Asian Youth Ambassadors Dream Award

Remember Suzanne Lee? I wrote on her enviable exploits and adventures here and here a while back. Well, she has been nominated and shortlisted for the "Most Outstanding Youth of the Year" for the Asian Youth Ambassadors (AYA) Dream Award (Anugerah Impian Malaysia).

Asian Youth Ambassadors (AYA) is a non-profit organisation founded in Malaysia for the primary purpose of “inviting, inspiring, instructing and involving young people to dare to dream and be responsible in fulfilling those dreams for the good of all”.

AYA’s main priority is a commitment to raising leaders of godly standards and excellence, believing that sound and solid leaders determine the overall health (spirit, mind and body) of a whole generation as it does a whole nation.

The AYA Dream Award is organised in conjuction with New Sunday Times. From the AYA website:

The AYA Dream Malaysia Awards is about our future - and the people who are farsighted enough to invest in it. The Awards is in line with AYA’s objective of building tomorrow’s leaders today and to create a better and brighter future for Malaysia by inspiring, inciting and inculcating responsible attitudes and actions especially – but not exclusively – in the hearts and minds of our youths.

This Awards serves as an encouragement to emerging individuals and responsible institutions to persevere in their dreams of improving the quality of life for themselves and for those around them in spite of the difficulties and obstacles they encounter.

And the "Most Outstanding Youth of the Year Award" seeks to give recognition and to reward young individuals aged 18 to 33, who have overcome and may still be overcoming obstacles in their lives to be where they are today.

Yvonne Foong, the winner of the award in 2005, is a patient of Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (a rare and painful disease that causes tumors to grow all over in her body). Thus, she has started a fund raising effort, aiming to raise USD58,600 for her surgery to remove a tumor (Acoustic Neuroma) that caused hearing loss in her left ear. Her other up-coming fund-raising effort is to publish her own book, called “I’m Not Sick, Just A Bit Unwell”. Currently, she is also actively involved in conducting writing workshops held by various bookstores.

So, guys and gals, if you think that Suzanne deserves a shot at the AYA Most Outstanding Youth Award for her effort and achievements, put in a vote for her here by the end of October. The online votes contribute to 60% of the overall votes.

Good luck, Suzanne! :)