A Rotary Club of Bukit Kiara Sunrise Project                                                                    

Communication Release
CR 201001-0001
Jan2010

Rotary Club Launches New Education Fund

In Malaysia, the opportunities for financial aid for
deserving students in upper secondary school are
very limited. Once they are able to get into tertiary
institutions, financial assistance opportunities
improve dramatically. Financial pressures may
force some students to leave school prematurely or
if they remain in school, these pressures and
conditions at home may restrict the students’
progress and results. Additionally, these students
may not have the social networks or peer group
contacts to expose them to the range of career
choices, so they cannot assess future opportunities
properly. In other instances, parents may not be
well equipped to advise the students on their future
potential.
Amirul (right) receiving the Education Assistance Award
from President Frances (centre) and REF Chairman Dr Yee

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 2010 – The Rotary

Club of Bukit Kiara Sunrise of RI
District 3300, Malaysia, recently launched
its education fund. The fund was officially
launched at a Charity Dinner organized by the club
and attended by about 200 guests on 14 November
2009 at the The Saujana Kuala Lumpur. Formally
called the RCBKS Education Fund or “REF” in
short, the fund aims at helping needy youths get an
education. Besides honouring major donors, four
students were presented with the first financial
assistance awards on the night.
 
President of the club, Frances Po in her address
explained, “The focus of the RCBKS Education Awardee Susmitha (right) with her mother
Fund is to support the education of underprivileged
youths in upper secondary school or in a vocational
training programme. Within this age group, the
opportunities for financial aid are very limited. The
fund aims to nurture and develop the students into “The vision of the REF is to
becoming useful members of society by providing make a positive difference to
them with education opportunities, leadership
training and values education. The vision of the young lives by helping those
REF is to make a positive difference to young lives who want to help themselves,
by helping those who want to help themselves, and and thus providing them with a
thus providing them with a better start to a better
life.” better start to a better life.”

 
Awardee Choong Pui Yee (right) with Rotarian Dr Kong
(centre) and spouse Kim
Against this backdrop of community need, the
mission of the fund is three fold; to:
 Make a positive difference to young lives by
putting them on the start of the road to a better
life.
 Support the education of youths, who need
financial assistance, aged mainly between
15-19 years old who are currently in upper
secondary school or in a vocational training
programme.
 Nurture and develop youths who desire to
help themselves into becoming useful
members of society by providing them with
education opportunities, leadership training,
values education, mentoring and related
support.
 
 
Rotarian Graham (left) making a presentation on the
leadership camp to a group of students
Consequently the main objectives of the REF are
therefore to:
 Assist the students stay in full time education;
improve their grades; make appropriate
career/tertiary education choices and provide
them with access to appropriate “life skills”
training opportunities.
 Provide the students and their families with a
network of opportunities and contacts so as to
expose them to a range of career choices that
they may not otherwise be exposed in order to
assess future opportunities properly.
 Develop the students to their full potential by
helping them “be the best they can be”.
 Nurture the students into good citizens who will
in time involve themselves in activities for the
betterment of their own communities.
 
The REF logo depicting a Rotarian
lending a helping hand to a youth
With the mission and objectives clearly defined, the
Rotary club developed the REF as a four-pronged
holistic initiative comprising:
 Education Assistance Award – a 1-5 year
financial assistance programme.
 Leadership Training – a programme that
provides experiential learning opportunities to
develop leadership and team building skills.
 Values Education – a programme that
teaches life values such as Self-confidence,
Honesty, Responsibility, Compassion and
Humility.
 Youth Mentorship – a programme that
assigns trained volunteer mentors to provide
guidance, encouragement and review of
schooling progress.
After five months of intensive development work,
the four prongs together constituting the
programmes of the REF are now well anchored.
With the help of generous donors, the club has 

Awardee Amirul (centre) with his family and Rotarians
commenced selecting needy students for financial
assistance awards. Regardless at what age a
student is picked up by the fund, the REF commits
to providing financial assistance to the student until
he/she finishes secondary school (19 years old),
provided the student makes continuous progress
assessed through an annual review. The
leadership training and values education
programmes have been designed with the help of
professionals, thanks to the dedicated funding of
the CIMB Foundation, the charity arm of a leading
local bank. And finally, the youth mentorship
programme has the important support of
experienced psychologists, from the Faculty of
Behavioral Science of a local university, who have
professionally designed and conduct the training
programme for volunteer mentors. The REF is
indeed very fortunate to receive such generous and
professional assistance.
 
Awardee Yu Xin (far right) with his family
The members of the Rotary club are aware that as
a small club of about thirty-three members, they
cannot be all things to all people in their service to
the community. “However we do have some assets
such as organizational abilities, modest financial
resources and a network of supportive friends. The
beauty of Rotary is that it brings together
individuals not short of creative abilities who then
become facilitators that bridge great resources to
great needs in society,” says Dr Kong Voon Sin
who is the subcommittee chairman for Education
Assistance Awards.
“The beauty of Rotary is that it
brings together individuals not
short of creative abilities who
then become facilitators that
bridge great resources to great
needs in society.”
The Rotary club in their fund raising efforts has
identified three main ways supportive members of
the public can assist the REF. They can participate
in the following:
 Donor Programme for those who wish to
support by making financial contributions.
 Sponsor-a-Student Programme for donors
who wish to identify specific students for
financing.
 Volunteer Mentor Programme for those who
wish to participate in youth mentorship.
The REF has the potential to do a lot of good work
in the community. Beyond the obvious projects
listed above, working closely with the community in
this way offers many other spin-off service
opportunities. “For example, in sourcing for suitable
candidates for our programmes we have already
come across families who need medical help such
as kidney dialysis. Other families have children who
fall beyond the range of our target beneficiaries,
such as high potential students who are entering
tertiary education. These can be referred to other
Rotary Clubs which may be in a position to help.
Some of the candidates also qualify and can be
sponsored for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award
(RYLA) and other district Rotary programmes,”
says Graham Bennett who is the subcommittee
chairman for the Leadership Training Programme. 
The chairman of the REF, Dr Yee Yoke Leong
says, “With the launch of the REF, we witness the
first seeds being planted with the first few
awardees receiving financial assistance from the
education fund. These recipients now know that no
matter how poor they are if they are prepared to do
honest, hard work to help themselves, somebody in
society will care enough to come to their aid. It is
this value that we hope to plant in these young
minds so that in time, when they are able, they too
will see it fit to help others in need.”
 
Awardee Darshinii (far left) with her family
“…no matter how poor they
are, if they are prepared to do
honest, hard work to help
themselves, somebody in
society will care enough to
come to their aid.”
To date the REF has already begun supporting
seven students with its financial assistance awards
and by the end of its first full year of operations,
aims to select about 10-15 students for this
programme. By then it will also provide leadership
training and values education to about 50 students
and train about 30 adult volunteer youth mentors.
Awardees Jenny (left) and Thanaletchumi
For More Information on the RCBKS Education
Fund you may contact the following:
The RCBKS Education Fund
c/o
The Rotary Club of Bukit Kiara Sunrise
16B Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Attn: Dr Yee Yoke Leong (ylyee@pc.jaring.my)
Rotary International is an
organisation of business and
professional leaders that provides
humanitarian service, encourages
high ethical standards in all vocations and builds
goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary
International is the world's first service club
organization, with more than 1.2 million members in
33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are
volunteers who work locally, regionally, and
internationally to combat hunger, improve health
and sanitation, provide education and job training,
promote peace, and eradicate polio under the
motto Service Above Self. For more information,
please refer to: www.rotary.org or
www.rotary3300.org.my
Rotary Club of Bukit Kiara
Sunrise was established on 22 June
1992. It meets weekly at 7.30 am on
Saturdays at the Bukit Kiara
International Equestrian Club in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The club
sponsors an Interact youth club in a
secondary school in Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur.