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        Believing in the youth’s capability to lead, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) turned over the management of its Multi-city Youth eXchange (MYX) and Young Minds on Xplore (YMX) programs to the Young Heroes for Cebu (YHC) in a partnership agreement signing held last July 10 at the Sinulog Hall of the Rizal Library and Museum, Cebu City.

   YHC is a youth organization composed of alumni of the third run of the YMX, an immersion program in Europe for Cebuano youth organized by RAFI in partnership with the Vriendschapsband Haarlemmermeer–Cebu (VHC), the City of Kortrijk, and the City of Cebu.

   The agreement signing was one of the highlights of the welcome dinner for the delegates of the second run of MYX, the counterpart immersion program in Cebu for Dutch and Belgian youth, which YHC would be anchoring starting this year.

   MYX 2 adult leaders, Nanda van Dijk and Kim Walgraeve representing VHC and the City of Kortrijk, respectively, signed as witnesses to the agreement.  Councilor James Cuenco, Chair of the Committee on International Relations, also signed as witness in behalf of the City of Cebu.

   â€œAfter their trip in Europe, YMX 3 delegates, who now call themselves the Young Heroes for Cebu, decided to pay it forward and take on the challenge of sharing the MYX-YMX opportunity to more young people,” Mel Yan, program officer of RAFI–Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center (EADSC), said in his opening message. 

   MYX, which was started by RAFI-EADSC in 2006 under the name “Pinoy-Dutch eXplore (PiDeX)”, is a program under the framework of the sister-city relationship between Cebu City and two European cities―Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands and Kortrijk, Belgium. 

   The first run of its counterpart program, YMX, was conducted in 2007.

   RAFI shall be guiding YHC in organizing the said exchange programs towards full assumption of the latter in a three- to five-year period.

   EADSC is under the Leadership & Citizenship focus area of RAFI, which aims to groom future leaders and influencers in the community. Other focus areas of RAFI are Integrated Development, Micro-finance & Entrepreneurship, Culture & Heritage, and Education.

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