This is a long overdue post. When I started writing, I told myself that this would be among the few headlines I would write about first.
But then came COVID-19, it started becoming bad, really bad. Everyone’s attention (including mine) was directed to its development and how best to stay safe (rightfully so).
Today, I decided to dedicate time to write this piece out, to give tribute to the amazing work done by amazing people. Also as a breather to the realities of today (to keep my mind off), so that we can look forward to days when this period is over.
The Topic of Takaful Awareness
Awareness on takaful has always been the highlight at conferences as well as industrial and company meetings. Each time we discuss the issue of low takaful penetration, low public awareness would surely come out as a reason (or is it an excuse?).
Is the issue real? – probably is.
Do we have the right answer to solve it? – probably no, not yet.
I don’t have a full proof solution for sure.
But we will never find the answer if we keep on doing the same thing repeatedly. While we might not find the solution yet (and we will need to continuously revisit as circumstances constantly change), we need to allocate some time to really think of a way that can really make that meaningful impact.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
Trying Something Different
For the past 7 months, I’ve had the chance to work with a social enterprise called “Arus”. They consist of a bunch of dedicated and passionate teachers, who weren’t originally a teacher before – most of them came from the Teach For Malaysia alumni who decided to continue fighting for their cause after completing the program.
Arus started in Penang by 4 bright individuals: Alina, Felicia, David and Daniel.
Their main objective is to bring meaningful education to everyone especially children from underprivileged society. They fund this objective through their various public programs and partnerships with corporate entities.
Today they are operating from their offices in Penang and KL.
We worked with the KL office led by Alina and within 2 weeks they came up with an innovative (at least to me) financial literacy program targeted for school children between ages 12 to 17.
Our target was to try and bring the program to schools that had underprivileged students across the country, and hopefully the benefits will spillover from there in the long run – somehow.
It combined financial literacy through experiential learning coupled with teaching digital skills. At the end of the program, the kids were expected to come up with a digital app prototype relating to financial literacy. All 3 components of the program was to be completed over a 3 days period.
At first, I thought the plan seemed a bit ambitious with so many things to be done within a short period of time but Alina (I’m a hardcore fan of her work now) convinced me that the team can pull it through.
I was fully on board in making it happen.
So we went all out and brought the proposal to the respective stakeholders, both internal and external. We knew it was good idea (at least we the core group – Alina, Intan and me truly believed in it) but we never expected the feedback from our final endorsing gate to be overwhelming positive. They wanted us to pilot it out at BNM’s financial carnival up north in Perlis less than a month away.
Making It Happen
The team scrambled to make the plan a reality. At first, I wanted to say it was a miracle that made it happen but that wouldn’t be fair – it was the hard work of the Arus team that made our first “Fund For Life” program at Sekolah Kebangsaan Putra, Kangar, Perlis a complete success.
Tears came out from my eyes on the last day when a 12 year old explained how takaful is important in her own words, much better, more eloquent and sincere than many of us who have been working in the industry for so long.
We then conducted our second session in KL during the school holidays with students from two secondary schools and the education centre for undocumented kids around the Chow Kit area, “Bukit Jalanan Chow Kit” (BJCK).
Looking forward to the enhanced version of the program where we go all “e” i.e. online soon.
I’ll let the videos tell the rest of the stories.
If you ask me whether the program has helped solve the awareness issue – I don’t have a straight answer.
And I still don’t know how much or how far the program would make that difference. But one thing for sure, at least we’re trying something different, creating awareness from a young age, trying to reach out to a market segment that was difficult to access before.
At the very least, we’re planting seeds from today for a better outlook tomorrow.
Arus – My Hero
So – obviously Fund For Life isn’t the only one good thing Arus has done in this world – it’s one of the many. Before working with us, they’ve done works with so many corporate bodies, NGOs and more importantly kids.
I once attended a TED talk of a group kids from BJCK, who attended Arus’s program where they used Microbit (I’m new to this too) to come with prototype designs of solutions to real life problems.
When I heard the kids present, I was extremely impressed and moved. There was a 12 year old girl (or was it 11) who just started reading and writing when she was 8 – and there she was standing in front of so many strangers speaking perfect English. I was in awe. This beautiful sight was also the hard work of another Hero – Cikgu Rahayu, the founder of BJCK.
I’m excited and looking forward to the full fledge school for undocumented kids and refugees that Arus will be opening in that area in June 2020.
Again, I’m a hardcore fan of you guys.
Tribute to Alina, Felicia, Azrina, Faizah, Nabihah, David and the other Arus team members that I haven’t met.
To Arus and all the social enterprises out there trying to make a difference: keep up the amazing work.
If you’re interested in collaborating with Arus, drop a note at: enquiry@arusacademy.org.my