‘Community University’ or known as CommU is here again with 2 physical programs!
1. This morning there was an interview session for the CIMB Islamic Riderprenuer program for Cohort 2. A total of 37 potential participants were interviewed to meet the important criteria for this program. Thank you to all potential participants who attended this interview. We would also like to thank the interview jury volunteers and moderators consisting of CIMB, Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia and Yayasan Belia Malaysia for making this first interview session a success. Those who are still interested in the program can contact Yayasan Belia Malaysia for an interview session that will take place on 15 October 2022.
2. Today, a total of 30 Taylorians, consisting of students and staff of Taylor’s University, with the combination of 3 schools namely – School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy and School of Biosciences conducted a free health check-up for 100 residents of PPR Kg Muhibbah located at Surau Jumaat Nur Aisy Syakirin. The health examination is followed by a health counseling session by health experts who are lecturers at Taylor’s University. Children are also given free deworming as well as interesting activities while parents carry out health checks. This program runs until tomorrow from 9 am to 3 pm. Those interested, don’t miss the opportunity to attend and get free health advice in addition to a goodie bag containing basic necessities given to attendees!
Thank you and watch this space for more impactful programs! If you are interested for collaboration, do reach out to us
Social Entrepreneurship Program for B40 community as an introduction to upskill to be a social entrepreneur, 2 modules were presented, namely Introduction to Social Entrepreneurs as well as business models that can be used for social entrepreneurs. Not only that, participants were also exposed to the concept of Business Canvas Model where they had to brainstorm ways to impact as a Social Enterprise, identifying their mission, product/service offered and choosing the right business model.
Total of 19 small entrepreneurs from the B40 community attended to gain knowledge. This program was intended for those who wish to transition from regular entrepreneurs to social entrepreneurs.
Align with objective of Taylor’s Community that uplift the community to be able generate income and at the same time help the marginalised communities and the environment.
We are glad that the participants are taking the leap of faith to explore the idea of becoming social entrepreneurs to create a positive impact on the community and the environment!
Let’s take a look at the impact measurement for this program.
When the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented, we wanted to find out how our community was doing and did a survey amongst 100 entrepreneurs who lived in PPR areas. The survey showed that 77% of them felt mentally stressed out. We realise that this was heavily affected by the fear of getting the virus (28%), financial needs as many of them couldn’t work or run their businesses (27%), and over their children’s learning (15%).
With this, we knew that it was essential for us to address their needs rather than just doing things Business-As-Usual (BAU). We knew we had to first address their need for groceries and how they can cope with their current situation. Moreover, we knew that we couldn’t fish for them long term, empowering them to sustain themselves during this period is also essential.
We quickly started a Program Keusahawanan (PK) Alumni Facebook Group to empower our B40 entrepreneur community and a B40 women’s support WhatsApp group chat to provide this community with emotional well being modules. For each committed participation, we will then provide them grocery care packs to help them with food supplies through this difficult period. Throughout these 3 months, with the help of various partners like CIMB Islamic, CIMB Foundation, Canon, Takaful Malaysia and Impact Malaysia, we were able to deliver 639 care packs to more than 2,530 B40 family members.
To execute our programs, social media platforms were our go-to options as they were easily accessible for our community. For our entrepreneurs, we ran weekly classes that taught them to adapt to online selling and leveraging on existing delivery services. Following this, we too shared with them how they could run a WhatsApp business while giving a few tips on digital marketing and basic poster designing. Besides that, during the Ramadan month, we kickstarted the Kedai Kita Lah initiative to consolidate all meaningful businesses on one platform to allow people to support these small businesses.
As for our women support group, our team psychologist, Nelavathi Marimuthu, she planned out weekly emotional well being modules to help the women from different aspects such as emotional management, parenting strategy, developing self confidence and other related topics. For every session, almost 100% of the participants mentioned that they have found it beneficial and could practice what they learned in their daily lives to better cope with the current situation. Similarly, participants would receive care packs for participating as an encouragement for their fighting spirit to adapt to the new changes.
We have seen how our communities started to adapt and change. Our programs work and it is a sustainable way of empowering them to be sustainable. It’s been almost three months and our next step is to teach our communities to adapt to the new normal, to focus on Life after Covid-19 and that it’s possible to thrive even when things are difficult. We are always looking for interested companies to partner us to run sustainable charitable programs. For partnership opportunities, do reach out to may.wong@taylors.edu.my.
