No Apologies

Last September, after a supper talk, my MLM classmate Josephine invited me to participate in No Apologies Mandarin Training of Facilitators in Melaka organized by Focus on the Family Malaysia (FOFM). As the course would be held on the beginning of the final exams period, I managed to make myself available easily.

Later, I learned that Siew Hong, who was doing counseling work at Agape Care Centre, was also recommended by Josephine to attend this course. So when I reached Straits Baptist church at Bukit Beruang on 29st October, I already had a course mate whom I knew.

According to the leaflet, No Apologies is a programme designed for the youth who are seeing an increasing rate of teen pregnancy, abortion, single-parent households and divorce. This character-based curriculum helps young people make wise choices regarding high-risk behaviors, including sexual involvement before marriage. It deals with upholding the value of the individual, marriage, the family and the importance of keeping ourselves pure for our future husband or wife.

Currently there are over 1000 trained facilitators throughout Malaysia which includes school counseling teachers for Wilayah Persekutuan (Kuala Lumpur), Senior Officers from the curriculum department of the Ministry of Education Malaysia and National Health & Physical Education teachers. FOFM is working towards training additional facilitators to meet the demand for more workshops. And since its inception in January 2003, the curriculum has reached over 30,608 youth in various parts of Malaysia and 27,899 (91.16%) of them have taken the Pledge to remain abstinent until marriage. The response and invitation by schools and organizations has also since grown.

During the two and a half days, sessions of demonstrations, role plays and activities enabled us to familiarize ourselves with the curriculum materials and subjects to conduct workshops in the future.

On the third day, we were required to present a segment of what we had learned in the training.

I wish I had been introduced to this programme when I was in the secondary school, for nobody had told me the truth about life, love and sex at that young age. Now as one of the certified facilitators,

I would like you to know that as long as you are single, it is never to late to make a pledge of abstinence until marriage.