Sunday November 6, 2005

First fundraising course in S-E Asia

UNIVERSITI Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in collaboration with The Resource Alliance and support of Yayasan Nanyang Press conducted a 20-day course on fundraising and communication recently.

The course was conducted at UTAR’s Centre for Extension Education from Sept 17 to Oct 8.

The main objective of the course is to provide participants a platform to mobilise a diverse range of financial and non-financial resources to manage their non-governmental organisations.

The course was conducted for the first time in Malaysia and South-East Asia.

UTAR’s Faculty of Accountancy and Management and course co-ordinator, assistant prof Jeffrey F.K. Phang said the programme was a good initiative as fundraising activities played an important role in the sustainability of NGOs.

Facilitators and participants of the 20-day fundraising course

“By offering this course, UTAR, as a community-driven education institution, is doing its part to help the community.

“The course was well-organised and I witnessed myself that all the participants were enjoying themselves throughout the course and learned things that they would not have been exposed to otherwise,” said Phang.

He added that it was a good networking opportunity where participants were sharing their experiences, problems and helping one another with solutions.

Despite having to travel every day from Negri Sembilan to Petaling Jaya for the past 20 days, R.D. Ramesh Patel, the treasurer of the Malaysian Hindu Sangam, Negri Sembilan branch, expressed no regrets signing up for the course.

He said the course had taught him to conduct fundraising professionally by embedding creativity and technology into the traditional methods.

“I'm more confident and eager to put into practice what I have learnt. This course has certainly boosted my motivation in helping those in need,” he added.

Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) Foundation manager Faizah A. Aziz said the course reinforced her knowledge on fundraising which she had gained through reading extensively.

She said the course enabled her to learn different methods for fundraising such as approaching Malaysians abroad for contributions.

“Funds raised will be used for IJN’s cardiovascular research, scholarships for medical students, study grants for doctors/para-professionals and to subsidise poor patients,” she added.

Ryan Valdiviez from USA said he learnt how NGOs operated in Malaysia and how they partnered the government to achieve the same goals as well as successfully run fundraising within stipulated guidelines and regulations.

Valdiviez, who previously worked with an NGO in United States doing volunteer work for the homeless, joined the Harvest Centre a month ago to help in the centre’s effort to break the cycle of poverty in the Sentul area.