Many Malay/Muslim professionals give back to community, Mendaki to focus on improving training

SINGAPORE – The stream of Malay/Muslim professionals who volunteer and give back to the community through Yayasan Mendaki’s initiatives is encouraging, said Mendaki’s deputy chairman Zaqy Mohamad, adding there is no shortage of volunteers. The hope for now is to be able to train these volunteers well.

Speaking to the media at Mendaki’s 35th annual general meeting (AGM) on June 15, Mr Zaqy said: “We have a pretty good number of volunteers. I can’t deploy them fast enough.”

The group currently has around 1,000 volunteers who are professionals. “The numbers are encouraging, and we hope to scale up our training and deployment capabilities,” he added.

“We don’t want them to volunteer and just be pulled to the deep end. We have to create some level of trust and capability because parents have entrusted us with their children to see improvements.”

Since 2022, Mendaki’s professional networks have grown to more than 600 professionals. Through the networks, professionals working in sought-after industries share their experiences to help other Malay/Muslims who are looking to secure a job.

Mr Zaqy, who is also Senior Minister of State for Defence and Manpower, shared that the self-help group is also looking to forge partnerships with more companies.

He said: “We are looking to expand, and we are talking to more corporates for them to come on board. That is one area in which we hope to grow – beyond just giving tuition, there is certainly scope for Mendaki to engage the wider corporate network to give our kids more chances and opportunities.”

He added that moving forward, Mendaki will continue to focus on expanding to meet the community’s needs.

In 2023, the organisation saw a nearly 40 per cent increase in the number of cases it served through its portal, referrals, calls and walk-ins. It served 24,000 cases, including employment support, financial aid and educational support.

“This reaffirms Mendaki’s efforts to ensure that our programmes and initiatives continue to be accessible and closer to the community,” the group said in a news release on June 15.

Mendaki is one of the three organisations that helm M3 – which runs M3@Towns that bring community programmes to the heartland.

The 11 towns, which include Bedok and Jurong, cover 80 per cent of the Malay/Muslim community, Mr Zaqy said.

Setting up towns in these areas ensures resources are used in an optimised way, he added. M3’s five satellite centres are also placed with much thought of how to reach the community.

Mr Zaqy said: “We know where our community is and we can target them more efficiently.”

At a media conference after Mendaki’s AGM, the organisation shared that it saw a drop in income and funding to $50.2 million in 2023 from more than $60 million in 2022.

Mr Zaqy said this can be attributed to a drop in donations. Fund-raising efforts in 2022, which was Mendaki’s 40th anniversary, reaped more fruit.

It spent $2.5 million on programmes to prepare children for formal education, like KelasMateMatika (KMM), which prepares pre-schoolers for Primary 1. In 2023, the programme saw a more than 70 per cent increase in enrolment.

Through KMM, eight in 10 did not require additional learning support in Primary 1, indicating they are “Primary 1-ready”.

Mendaki also disbursed $41.6 million in tertiary tuition fee subsidies and $2.4 million in study loans in 2023. Mr Zaqy said Mendaki will be reviewing the loans to ensure more students are eligible.