ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Gaya Island and the many challenges confronting its low-income traditional fishing villages. It provides a brief overview of Malaysian youth associations, followed by a profile of BESUGA. The chapter follows with the BESUGA story, a discussion of the work and evolution of the organization and how it went from a rather ordinary youth development program provider to an agent of social change within a span of five years. BESUGA's focus on education and program provision facilitated its growth into the realm of community engagement and organizing. Despite BESUGA's successes, the organization faces critical challenges that must be addressed to realize its vision of becoming a full-fledged education provider for the Gaya community. Finally, the chapter overviews with a discussion of challenges the organization still faces and offers a new way of thinking about youth-adult partnership across multiple generations as a result of the lessons learned on Gaya Island.
