Nur Shaheed

I attended 2 meetings yesterday and today, and it was the start of 2/3 social projects that I am committing myself to this year. On Sunday, I was at Fadli’s place for a meeting on Anumtiara Society.

Anumtiara is a non-profit organisation that aims to provide support and relief to under privileged families whose parent(s) were incarcerated.

A couple of weeks ago, I offered my office space for Anumtiara to conduct one of their activities for their beneficiaries. After the event, I had a chat with the committee members about their website and online presence. This led to the idea of having me get more involved in the operations of Anumtiara.

The first opportunity that I saw was to assist Anumtiara in their online presence. Basically, they have little knowledge of getting this done. And if I were to do it, I’d probably be able to save them lots of time, AND lots of money. Besides, I enjoy doing web stuff, so I think there is plenty of benefits in this exchange.

The second opportunity appeared as I learned more about the challenges that Anumtiara’s beneficiaries face. While I may not be able to contribute directly to the solutions of their problems, my assistance in other areas via Anumtiara will channel the benefits backs to those in need. And I suppose, I’d score even more karma points; which I seem to be doing a lot lately.

So one of the immediate things that I will be working on is the website, sponsorship packages and provide support for their basic documentation. I guess it will be a test of my resourcefulness in getting information together and presenting it in an effective manner for usage. And as per any volunteer work, there is always that opportunity to learn and try a new skill.

The other meeting that I had was just a couple of hours ago, with Abang Abu. Abu was recently appointed as the chairman of Young Entrepreneurs Network (YEN) at the Singapore Malay Chambers of Commerce & Industry (SMCCI). I was a member of the chamber in 2006 for a year, after which I didn’t renew as I didn’t find it necessary or beneficial.

But this year, I’ve decided to once again try and contribute my efforts to the development of the Malay Muslim business community. And Abu also invited me to join him in organising activities under the YEN brand. I have some ideas, which has always been offered to the chamber since 2006, but was never in any way accepted.

With YEN this time round, I hope to be able to gather the support of young Malay Muslim entrepeneurs. First of all, I would want to know the number of current members of the chamber who are within the YEN profile. Then, the number who are in the chamber database, but not members (probably expired membership). And finally, to identify the Malay Muslim entrepreneurs who are not within the chamber’s radar and fit the YEN profile. I think it is important to have strong numbers in order for things to happen. But of course, that’s just one of the factors.

The other objective is to organise activities that will allow the Malay Muslim community to get to know and interact with each other more. For a community that makes up 35% – 40% of the nation, I think we should be able to know who’s who. And the relationship should help generate a more buzzing business environment for the community.

While we get connected among ourselves, it is also important to get connected to the larger community. For this, Abu has already thought of some plans to get connected with the likes of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI) and Singapore Business Federation. These relationships have long been fostered, so our main objective is to organise activities to turn the relationship into something functional where, again, things happen.

If all goes well, we should be able to form a committee within this week and Abu will be able to present the YEN plans to the executive committee early next month. At the moment, we haven’t got a budget allocated for the activities, but as business experience have taught us, with a strong desire for success, we should be able to get it going, with or without money!

The 3rd social project that I will be committing myself to is with Arsenal Singapore. I have been invited to become a member with voting rights and to be directly involved in the club’s activities. I participated in the Hair For Hope fund raiser event where I represented Arsenal Singapore. So even though it is a club for fans of Arsenal FC, the activities that we do go beyond football. And here’s another avenue for me to score even more karma points!

So please, God, I’m being very good and scoring karma points. Please let me redeem the points in the near future, please…