SAP Malaysia and HOPE Worldwide Malaysia (HOPE) recently announced a joint education and digital literacy initiative to help underprivileged youth in Malaysia acquire basic educational qualifications.
The initiative extends SAP’s relationship with HOPE to a third country in the Asia Pacific region, where both entities have collaborated on similar initiatives in India and Indonesia.
Children from low-income families face enormous pressure to leave school and join the workforce to reduce the family’s economic burden. Owing to a lack of educational qualifications, these youth are mostly confined to low-paying jobs with little or no career progression, thus trapping them in a vicious poverty cycle.
To help them, SAP will invest some RM120,000 this year in HOPE Malaysia’s ongoing supplementary education programme to provide beneficiaries aged eight to 18 with free or largely subsidised tuition and intensive coaching to ensure they successfully sit their PMR and SPM exams.
The funding will also go towards the set-up and support of One-Stop IT Resource Centres at HOPE’s Kuala Lumpur and Penang premises, providing access to computers and digital literacy training to improve employability and economic opportunities.
“Poverty is a crushing condition, but quality education, vocational training and skill acquisition can be the key to uplifting people from lifelong economic difficulties and despair,” said KowshikSriman, managing director of SAP Singapore and Malaysia. “With this programme, SAP hopes to help the underprivileged realise their potential and live better lives.”
HOPE Worldwide Kuala Lumpur executive director Katy Lee said: “We are thankful for SAP’s strong support, which will enable HOPE to serve more people in our community. This programme will go a long way in helping our youth overcome challenging economic circumstances and stressful home environments to complete school and change their lives for the better.”
Liberal Voices in Malaysia
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