Cagamas recently participated in Teach For Malaysia’s (TFM) Dragon’s Den which was held as part of TFM’s Innovation Day at MaGiC, Cyberjaya. Encik Ridzuan Shah Alladin, Human Capital Senior Vice President represented Cagamas as one of the three Corporate representative Dragons (judges) at Dragon’s Den. TFM’s Chairperson Board of Trustees YAM Tunku Ali Redhauddin Ibni Tuanku Muhriz and Datuk Yvonne Chia, TFM Trustee were also in attendance in support of Dragon’s Den and TFM Fellows.
“At Cagamas, we always look for ways to support innovative projects which promotes growth and development in high-need communities. I’m excited to listen and evaluate pitches from the Fellows today,” said Ridzuan.
Dragon’s Den, inspired by a reality show in the UK, is a platform for TFM Fellows to pitch their initiatives to address issues which they observe in their community. Dragons may offer funding ranging between RM1,000 and RM20,000 or support-in-kind to invest in worthy Fellow initiatives. Among the initiatives presented on that day were the Walrus Mental Health initiative, 21st Century Learning Experience and i’M SET.
1. Walrus Mental Health
Zainab Afiqah is currently a Fellow based in Klang and is now in her 2 nd year into her Fellowship. “My initiative on the Walrus Mental Health aims to raise awareness through running workshops and for students to raise awareness on this issue through posters and videos and receiving training to run workshops themselves - culminating in a school-wide exhibit on mental health,” said Fellow Zainab Afiqah. She noted that most of her students were stressed out – be it with exams or their relationship with friends or family, to the point where they become withdrawn and start self-harming themselves.
2. 21st Century Learning Experience
Fellow Jason Yap presented his pitch accompanied by his students on the “21st Century Learning Experience”. Although based in Kuala Lumpur, he realised that students and teachers at his school are not exposed to the current learning environment which promotes 21st century learning. His initiative is to provide an updated training module for teachers as well as infrastructure supports such as laptops and LCD screens to facilitate a holistic learning experience in school.
3. i’M SET
In the last 2 years, only 24 out of 6,000 students (across 4 lower-band schools in Pasir Gudang) had exposure towards Engineering and Technology (E&T) opportunities but these exposures were not sustained. “Students are keen to learn more, but schools lack the resources such as up-to-date E&T kits for students to explore outside of school time”, said Sue Ann who is currently a Fellow in Pasir Gudang, Johor. “i’M SET” introduces students to programming, designing and communication skills by exposing them to different competitions and industrial site visits related to E&T. The funds will be used to give students a chance to attend big-impact E&T competitions and workshops in Kuala Lumpur in addition to updated E&T kits.
Dragons listened and evaluated pitch presentations from 15 groups consisting of three members each group. Each group has 7-minutes to present their pitch followed by a 3-minute Q&A session. An exhibition was also set up to showcase both Fellow and Alumni initiatives and projects. A number of the Fellows managed to secure immediate funding for their initiatives whereas a few initiatives were scheduled for a second round of discussions with the Dragons.
“The sessions went well with a good level of teamwork demonstrated by each team. I found that all the initiatives presented were great and ideas presented practical. More importantly,“grassroot ideas” that came from both teacher and students themselves, which explains the issues faced within the communities the Fellows work with,” said Encik Ridzuan after the session.
He further added that as this was the first time Cagamas participated as a Dragon, his objective was to listen and learn about the types of initiatives being introduced. Moving forward, he hopes Cagamas will be able to support some initiatives in line with the Company’s sustainable efforts towards creation of a positive societal impact for under- served communities.
Cagamas has been actively giving back to the community and are committed to providing support through sustainable initiatives which promotes growth and development. One of Cagamas’ focus is raising education equity for highest-need schools and communities by linking together with community partners. Cagamas has partnered with TFM since 2017 and has sponsored three TFM Fellows impacting 450 students in the communities that TFM serves in.
