KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — The Girl Guides Association Malaysia (GGAM) aims to empower girls with the resilience needed to face the pressures and challenges of growing up in a challenging world.

Its president, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, said that as a mother and a grandmother, she knows the challenges faced by girls today are vastly different from what she experienced when growing up, especially with the emergence of social media.

She explained that one of the challenges is bullying, which no longer manifests itself in the physical realm but also virtual one.

According to the prime minister’s wife, online threats include not only sexual predators and practices of sexual grooming, which target children, but also the presence of scammers who prey on the innocent.

“That is why GGAM hopes to empower girls to be stronger and more resilient. We want to mould them to be leaders, to not succumb to bullies, predators and threats, as well as to always be equipped to face challenges.

“These have always been part of our Guiding laws, with hopes that these girls should be able to differentiate the opportunities from the dangers and be able to avail them,” Wan Azizah said at the International Day of Girls (IDG) celebration luncheon, in conjunction with the Olave Baden-Powell Society (OB-PS) World Conference 2023 here today.

The event was graced by Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah as the patron of GGAM.

Also present at the event were GGAM chief commissioner Datuk Yeoh Soo Keng and OB-PS chairman Susan Campbell.

With the theme #PreparedToChangeTheWorld#, the IDG celebration is a call to all, including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), to embrace and use resilience to empower the girls and young women to lead meaningful change in the community.

On the other hand, the OB-PS conference, which is held annually, aims to gather its members with common interests to provide financial support to the WAGGGS and ensure a steady stream of income which funds its work, projects, programmes and services.

This year’s conference, from October 12 to 16, is being held for the first time in Malaysia since 1998 and gathered over 360 participants from 17 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States of America, Nigeria, Korea and Japan. — Bernama