Edukid: Supporting the next generation’s education
Online or eLearning has long been mooted in Malaysia. It is primarily available to those in tertiary education. With the onset of the pandemic and its associated SOPs, eLearning had become a necessity for all schoolchildren.
A big hurdle for children in Malaysia to follow online classes is poor internet access, both for the educator and student, or the lack of appropriate devices in their household. An MoE study conducted in April 2020 showed that 36.9% or 1.85 million students do not have direct devices, which restricts them from attending online classes. Roughly 90% of students do not have personal devices for them to utilise.
This is more apparent for children living in Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) households. We wanted to do something to help. Thus in February 2021, we launched the MY EduKid Initiative project with the support of Community Transformation Initiative. We aimed to raise funds to purchase Chromebooks for urban poor children in PPR Kota Damansara to attend online classes.
Our target was raising RM30,000 to purchase the devices and pay for data lines and cost of monitoring the progress of at least 20 families over a year. We activated the program through social media and messaging platforms.
The support received from friends, family and their contacts was overwhelmingly positive. A total of RM61,446 was raised, far exceeding the initial target. Special appreciation goes to Instagrammer @faizdickievp who lent weight to the MY EduKid Initiative by raising RM15,000 through his own platforms.
With the funds available, we managed to secure 37 Chromebooks from Acer Malaysia, SIM dongles for the devices, and 20 70GB data lines sponsored by Tone Wow for a year. The outstanding data lines required were paid for.
Community Transformation Initiative is administering the Chromebooks usage for the PPR kids, and monitoring their progress.
Through this initiative, if we are able to just change one child’s life for the better through access to education, we deem it a success. Time will tell, but we hope for the best.