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Reward kindness! Strike a chord! Nominate someone for the first ever Volunteer Malaysia Awards!
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Reward kindness! Strike a chord! Nominate someone for the first ever Volunteer Malaysia Awards!

by The Daily SeniOctober 7, 2016

AS an organization that focuses on promoting volunteerism and social activism amongst Malaysian youths, iM4U receives a lot of support from the local community. Besides having its own youth radio station iM4U fm which provides music for Malaysians and the rest of the world; iM4U continues to motivate young Malaysians to fight the good fight. This was visibly proven through its massive Volunteer Malaysia program, which has brought tens of thousands of people coming together each year to participate in various community work.

Debuting in 2014, the inaugural Volunteer Malaysia program attracted over 26,000 volunteers, making it one of the most successful volunteer initiatives ever held in Malaysia. From repairing homes of the less fortunate, to revamping public facilities for the sake of comfort and aesthetic, the Volunteer Malaysia team can and will do just about anything to empower local youth.

It’s worth noting that the platform has grown from strength to strength under the leadership of community organiser and intellect Rudy Malik. We’ve met Rudy a couple of times and it humbles us to see how humble he is, despite the fact he’s been made CEO of iM4U as of this year!

The best thing to come out from all this? Volunteer Malaysia has now spawned its own awards ceremony! Dubbed as Volunteer Malaysia Awards (VMA), iM4U’s latest initiative aims to recognise efforts in volunteerism. The first awards ceremony of its type and scale, VMA will make note of notable contributors across a number of categories.

Good souls everywhere

VMA’s nomination process runs throughout this month of October which means you have slightly more than three weeks to tell iM4U your picks for the categories at hand.  Besides Malaysians, registered organisations and permanent residents can also be nominated for the awards!

Spanning a whopping twelve categories, the VMA will see all sorts of entities including private companies, government ministries, media organisations (hint hint), schools and even popular personalities rewarded for their efforts.

We’re very excited for at least two of these categories, namely Best Social Media Campaign for a Volunteer Initiative and iM4U FM Award for Best Humanitarian Song. Already ideas are swimming in our head, but what about volunteerism in all the other categories? If you’re having trouble recalling volunteer initiatives from around town, let’s get the conversation rolling with who we feel deserves a spot on the shortlist.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)‘s brilliant Asean Youth Volunteer Programme (AYVP) from July this year brought in young adults from education institutions and NGOs from the ASEAN region to do good deeds in Quezon City in the Philippines.

On top of a stringent selection process which ensured just 50 of the very best were chosen from over 1,400 applicants, the program saw direct engagement with the underprivileged Filipino community and gave Southeast Asians a chance to understand their neighbours better.

Meanwhile in East Malaysia, skincare and beauty brand Body Shop held a massive clean-up and collected more than 2,000 kilogrammes of garbage from a beach in Sabah two weeks ago. Aided by iM4U volunteers and the local community, The Body Shop Malaysia Coastal Clean-up also analysed the trash found on Tanjung Lipat in order to understand and eventually curb the impact of trash on the environment.

In fact, zoom back into Kuala Lumpur’s vibrant youth culture and you’ll find impressive new, selfless initiatives popping every once in a while. Take for example young writer Zoe Liew‘s upcoming games, food and garage sale event  — though not strictly a volunteerism initiative, it’s still an impressive one-woman fundraising initiative born out of a genuine compassion for cancer victims.

Do note that all we’ve listed barely represents a speck in the sea of good deeds being undertaken by hardworking locals. Know that there are plenty more people out there doing wonderful things and you have the power to encourage them do more.

By the way, nominating an entity requires their consent so don’t try to surprise a friend! For even more information, you can have a look at this super-neat fact sheet put together by the iM4U team. Until we’re back with more news, start nominating, folks!


Wanna know more about Volunteer Malaysia or the Volunteer Malaysia Awards? Head over to iM4U or tune into 107.9FM if you’re in the Klang Valley.

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The Daily Seni
The Daily Seni delivers news on local arts and culture, aiming to provide insight into Malaysia's ever-growing creative community as well as provoke thought and discussion.
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