TAIWAN — CHOICE ASIA celebrated it’s 16th Choice Asia Conference (CAC) with the theme “Dancing With The Light” at West Lake, Miaoli, Taiwan from 14 – 18 August.
Nine countries with a total number of 250 youths participated in this conference. They were Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Fiji.
A total number of 31 youths comprising two couples, two Priests from West Malaysia and East Malaysia represented Malaysia. The youths & couple from Penang Diocese, KL Archdiocese, Johor-Malacca Diocese were accompanied by Rev Fr. Francis Andrew from Penang Diocese. Rev. Fr. Galvin Ngumbang from Kuching Diocese accompanied the youths and couple from East Malaysia.
CHOICE Malaysia was given the privilege to animate the Holy Mass on 16 August.
Bishop John Baptist Lee celebrated the Mass for Solemnity of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary on 15 August. In his homily, His grace mentioned that the blessings of the Lord always accompanied those who believe in Him and Mother Mary shows the best example of believing in God wholeheartedly.
Discussion at this conference were centred on the challenges CHOICE face in each of the respective countries. New findings/learnings on how we could promote CHOICE to the youths were among the topics discussed at the conference.
On 17 August all the delegates from the different countries met to discuss further, more relevant issues while others went out to participate in the Make a Difference (MAD) project organised by the Taiwan CHOICE group. The MAD project was “Sanitary Pad Project” & “Slow Flying Angels”. The Sanitary Pad project taught us how to prepare Reusable Sanitary Pads so that we could be a helping hand to those in rural areas.
The Slow Flying Angels was making paper weights by painting of selected rocks done by special needs children. The day concluded with Holy Mass and thereafter a Gala Cultural Night Dinner. The CAC ended on 18 August with Holy Mass celebrated by our Indonesian counterparts.
Malaysia was unanimously chosen as the host for the 17th CHOICE ASIA CONFERENCE to be held in 2022.
Marshall Savarimuthu
