For the past four months Impact Hub KL has been proud to host 44 local and international fellows as part of the Volunteering for International Professionals (VIP) Fellowship Programme. Their enthusiasm and commitment to the nine Impact Projects has been inspiring, and the Hub team wanted to share a brief tribute to their hard work.

Hub KL launched in January with the opening of the VIP Fellowship Programme. This 16-week programme, an initiative of the National Blue Oceans Strategy funded by the Ministry of Finance, brought talented professionals from all over the world to work on nine impact projects in Malaysia. Fellows from as far afield as Finland, Puerto Rico, Russia, and Peru, were placed on teams with local professionals, to work on Impact Projects with nine Malaysian NGOs/ Social Enterprises.

The programme culminated on the 13th May with a final ceremony attended by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, The Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. We were honoured to have the opportunity to celebrate the work of our fellows.

The Fellowship has achieved amazing results. In four months they’ve done run pilot projects empowering underprivileged young people to start a culinary business; cleaned up a river in Kedah; founded a Human Capital Development Centre in Kulim to empower women through agriculture; conducted a needs assessment of the homeless of Kuala Lumpur; produced a film about life in Citizen Housing Projects (PPR – Projek Perumahan Rakyat); and run community education and outreach in fields including alcoholism and children’s rights. Each project has produced a short video explaining their work, which you should check out below.

Last week our beloved fellows dispersed back to all corners of the globe. We hope they took with them a slice of Malaysia. We would like to thank them all for contributing so much, not only to the Hub, but also to the communities they worked with. They left their jobs, families, and lives, to join us for sixteen weeks of intensive changemaking. They will be missed.

 

For more information on the VIP programme, click here or check out this summary video.

The VIP Fellowship Programme 2016 will be launched in last quarter of 2015. Stay tuned for updates via our FB Page or email [email protected]

 

— More about the projects here —-

 

Creating Livelihoods via Agriculture, hosted by early stage social enterprise, AnB Agro Trainers, is an income generation programme for single mothers with young children from a community living in poverty in Kedah. The VIP project team focused on developing and testing an agriculture training course and laying the foundations for a ‘Human Capital Development Centre’ and a sustainable chilli processing social enterprise including exploring new crops and organic farming methodologies. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar Academy, hosted in Kuala Lumpur by leading children and young people’s NGO, SOLS 24/7, Solar Academy is a training programme for disadvantaged youth that aimed to increase participants’ skills and employability in the solar energy sector. The VIP project team focused on designing and piloting a short training course and establishing partnerships with potential employers to offer job placements as interns and apprentices. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours Truly Kedah, hosted by early stage social enterprise, Random Collectives, the Yours Truly Kedah programme tackled an extreme waste management problem in an under-served community in Kedah. The VIP team created channels and incentives for the local community, local government, and other actors to take action and raised awareness about the need for sustainable waste management solutions for the community. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ubuntu: a start-up non-profit venture in Kuala Lumpur, Ubuntu aimed to find new ways to deliver holistic support to meet the underlying needs of the homeless. The VIP project team focused on surveying the homeless and mapped existing support services with the intention to identify where the gaps were and where new services could be provided. Insights from the mapping exercise resulted in the commencement of a pilot programme training local volunteers to provide sustainable support to the homeless community in Kuala Lumpur. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

Second Life Thru A.R.T. (Art, Rhythm, Theatre), hosted by leading youth empowerment NGO, MyHarapan, is a programme of performing arts workshops for youth at risk, which aimed to enhance employability in the arts sector and build skills and confidence in the youth to seek careers in the creative industries. The VIP team focused on delivering a series of workshops and events with young people from social housing projects in Kuala Lumpur. They also worked with the young people to produce a film about their lives, and communities. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

Addressing Alcoholism within the Orang Asli Population (AAOAP):  hosted by the University of Malaya Center of Addiction Sciences (UMCAS), the AAOAP programme is piloting new ways to raise awareness of the negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption and drug use on health and social wellbeing within the Orang Asli community in Carey Island. The VIP team focused on developing and testing a public health education campaign for youth and training a group of health advisors from the community to deliver health messages about healthy lifestyles. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

Power to the Children, hosted by well-established children’s rights NGO, Suka Society, is a new project that explores creative ways to elicit and share the opinions of children, aiming to help parents and others understand their needs better as well as raise awareness about children’s rights. The VIP team focused on testing a range of creative approaches to help children express their opinions and feelings and produced an awareness booklet on children’s rights which will be distributed nationwide. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

ILMU, hosted by LTT Global Communications, is a website providing free access to a wide range of educational materials, aiming to encourage lifelong learning for all Malaysians. The VIP project team focused on developing a more user-friendly version of the website and producing additional educational content relating to arts, culture and heritage with the intention of instilling a culture of learning to forge unity amongst Malaysians. Watch their video.

 

 

 

 

 

MyTiffin, hosted by well-established education NGO, Dignity for Children Foundation, MyTiffin is a start-up social enterprise catering service that provides training and work experience for 14-15 year olds at risk of leaving school with few qualifications. The VIP project team focused on developing and piloting a training course and local catering service for businesses in the Sentul area. Watch their video.

Share the news