KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 (Bernama) — Axiata Foundation, a nation-building and community outreach initiative by Axiata Group Bhd, has launched a Back To School Programme to enable deserving students from lower-income backgrounds to pursue their education despite facing financial difficulties.
Axiata’s president and group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Izzaddin Idris said a total of 700 top-performing students from 48 MARA Junior Science Colleges (MRSM) nationwide have been identified and would receive school uniforms, shoes and RM100 in cash.
He said beneficiaries identified for this programme, which is in partnership with Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), were from low-income families, with 60 per cent of them having been orphaned due to COVID-19 and other various reasons.
“Beneficiaries identified for this programme will now have opportunities to be nurtured further through our Axiata Young Talent Programme, mentoring and coaching from AxiataCares Volunteers, and the provision of Axiata Foundation scholarships to pursue their tertiary education, for those who qualify,” he said at the programme’s launching ceremony here today.
He said that he believed assistance and support should be approached in a manner that is holistic, structured, and sustainable with the interests of these deserving students at the core of the foundation’s initiatives.
Izzaddin said Axiata Foundation has also pledged RM115 million for the next 10 years (2022-2031) to be channelled towards programmes under its education pillar initiative in promoting equitable education and nurturing young talent including the Axiata Young Talent Programme.
Axiata Foundation focuses on developing and nurturing future-ready talents and leaders under the education pillar initiative as well as addressing community needs, especially for underserved and vulnerable groups through its community investments pillar.
Meanwhile, Axiata Foundation CEO Kamal Nawawi said its education pillar programme has even expanded into an area known as the Axiata Digital Leadership Programme (ADLP) which aims to reach out to university students, while also working with third parties to look at programmes in schools.
He said programmes for ADLP are in line with the foundation’s aspiration of becoming a digital champion in 2024, which was to provide needed digital skills to Malaysia’s future leaders for them to contribute to the country.
“We also added another area which is Equity in Education Fund Axiata and we are going to launch our scholarship fund hopefully in the next quarter, to reach the target of having about 40 students per year accepted into local universities, including those from the B40 families,” he added.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency