27-05-2025
Sabah students shine at Social Project Challenge 2025
The Sabah school teams gathered for a photo opportunity before their turns for the elevator pitch.
KOTA KINABALU (May 27): Three teams of 17-year-old aspiring changemakers studying at All Saints Secondary School, Kota Kinabalu, and Keningau Vocational College emerged as grantees for Social Project Challenge 2025 hosted by myHarapan and sponsored by Yayasan Telekom Malaysia (TM) during the bootcamp and pitch contest from May 23 until May 25 at Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. There were 15 shortlisted teams nationwide and 10 teams were chosen to receive grants of RM800 to carry out their social projects in the next three months.
The teams were initially shortlisted from 70 entries from 30 teams who attended online training and pitched their ideas before the list was further narrowed down to 15 teams who were fully sponsored to attend a three-day physical bootcamp followed by an elevator pitch. They were given the exact five minutes to present their ideas and another 10 minutes for the judges to ask the presenters questions.
All Saints' all-male quartet pitched their Mini H20 Purifier, a water filter which they designed for rural villagers in Sabah who have a limited access to clean water. The team members were Boy Foo E Nang, Ryan Adriel, Mirza Abreshyam and Joshua Robin. There were two teams from Keningau Vocational College (KVC) who made it to the list of the 10 winners. The first team developed a project titled Sign & Tell which intends to teach sign language to hearing school students and teachers so they can communicate better with hearing-impaired individuals for a more inclusive environment.
This team was made up of five female students – Victoria Jacob, Rosselina Senora, Iris Sofea, Daffeny Jeanne and Aleysa Felix.
The second team consisted of three students and they were Nur Adawiyah Balqis, Nur Syaidattul Akma and Syehekeel Daniel Hanry who developed a food and paper waste management system in collaboration with a local farm. They named their project Waste 2 Awareness.
The All Saints Secondary School's team was coached and managed by Siti Azizah Md Yussof while the teams from Keningau Vocational College were chaperoned and mentored by Vienny Balakrishnan and Dr Sirhajwan Idek.
These 10 winners will be presenting their projects again after the three-month implementation phase at another event and the success of their projects might secure them more grants with greater amount to further scale up their social projects.
The Social Project Challenge (SPC) is a programme that seeks to introduce youth to social entrepreneurship and equip them with skills as well as provide them the resources including grants and network to kickstart their social enterprises.
This programme has been initiated by myHarapan also known as Youth Trust Foundation which is a not-for-profit association established to empower young Malaysians by supporting youth projects and initiatives that lead to better nation-building.
