BEING proficient in English can open doors to greater opportunities in life. However, the ability to speak well in English has always been an issue among many high school students in Malaysia especially among those from semi urban and rural areas. The ability to speak, convey opinions and share ideas is an important skill that needs to be mastered from early stages of school life. We often hear complaints on how school leavers and college graduates are unable to speak well in English during interviews, and often falter in their ability to perform well at workplace because of their inability to communicate well in English. Therefore, becoming proficient in speaking English is imperative for students. The aim of this project is to carry out speaking activities that are fun and engaging so that students in rural areas can overcome their perception that English language is a difficult language to acquire. This proposal provides information on a four week interactive English activities ranging from Reader’s Theatre, Power singing, Storyboard and Creative Speech.  

Undocumented children include those who are stateless, dependent of foreign workers, foreign children staying illegally, children born from mixed or unregistered marriages, children born soon after marriage, children born of single mothers, and unregistered children from indigenous groups. As many as 43,973 undocumented children in Malaysia, ranging from seven to seventeen years old, were reported to be out of school. As a result of their status, there are up to 85% of illiteracy rate as they are not entitled access to the standard national schooling system. Study showed that poverty and citizenship status are the top contributors to the high illiteracy rate in Sabah. The consequences of illiteracy may have economic and social impact on the children. With little access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.Teluk Layang Alternative Learning Center (Sekolah Alternatif Teluk Layang) is located behind Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). It started in year 2015 by a group of UMS students. Currently, the school teaches Bahasa Melayu on every Saturday, starting from 9am to 12pm. Most of them are from the ethnic Suluk and Bajau, and our target community are all undocumented. The eldest student is 16 years old whereas the youngest is 7 years old.To tackle this problem, PriviLAD aims to aid children from the Teluk Layang Alternative Learning Center by giving them literacy and life skills. Education is vital for them in order to help mould a person and to lift them out of poverty. It creates opportunities for children to develop skills that will help them provide for themselves and their family. Breaking the cycle of illiteracy and improving their self-esteem is important for them to be independent, feel empowered and can take control of their lives.

Kampung Lubok Kiulu Tamparuli is located at West of Sabah, Malaysia and approximately 3 hours from Kota Kinabalu centre (Figure 1). This remote area currently accommodates 18 to 20 families which consists of 16 houses and 2 paddy houses (Figure 2). However, the area is encountering muddy water supply after the occurrence of rainfall. Hence, villagers in this area are facing clean water supply problem as the existing water tank is not enough to supply daily use clean water for all villagers especially during drought. As the students of Civil Engineering from Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, we keen to improve and develop the area by carrying out water upgrading and filtration project to enhance water supply to the communities involved.

Composting is very important for food security. Through the composting process, organic waste becomes the input to produce nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, increasing water retention and cation exchange (CIC) and increase production profits. From the environmental point of view, recycling these waste and applying it to the soil provides many benefits such as increasing the organic matter in soil, reducing methane produced in the landfills or public waste, peat replacement as substrate, carbon capture, soil temperature control and increasing soil porosity as well as reducing the risk of erosion and desertification. Realizing the importance of Composting, Engineering Faculty of Universiti Malaysia Sabah has produced a prototype to compost organic waste such as food waste and leaves. This technology is planned to be transferred to rural school which is the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tebobon to train the staffs and students to make compost. The reason why this secondary school is selected because, although SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah SERASI in year 2012, through the Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar (SERASI) programme and for three years from 2012, 2014 and 2016, SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah Wira SERASI, they have one main problem which is the unfinished composting project. The existing composting project in SMK Tebobon was discontinued due to lack of expertise in the field as well as allocation. The existing composting system is an open system (Refer Figure 1) which has led to many problems such as the presence of stray dogs and is exposed to uncertain weather factors. Thus, not only composting process will ensure the environmental sustainability to be achieved but it also enrich the quality of human capital in terms of knowledge as well as improving the quality of life. Besides, it help strengthen the pupils’/students’ character and taught them to love and care for the environment.

Persatuan Seni Silat Cekak Pusaka Ustaz Hanafi is a society at Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Johor Kampus Segamat. The coaches of the society teach the original and genuine martial art from Malaysia called Seni Silat Cekak Pusaka Ustaz Hanafi. The Seni Silat Cekak Pusaka Ustaz Hanafi Martial Art is a self-defence that develops quick reflexes.Thus, it is very effective and practical to be used for self-defence when facing the danger of any crime. This martial art also helps to develop students’ discipline, leadership skill, self-confidence and self-esteem.            The programme of Saving Life, Dignity and Heritage through the Seni Silat Cekak Pusaka Ustaz Hanafi Martial Art intends to impart the knowledge and skill of self-defence to the interested students of a remote area village school that is SMK Palong Timor, Segamat, Johor. Through learning self-defence, the students will be able to defend themselves when they face any danger or becoming the victims of criminals since the crime rate has increased.

Nearly 800,000 suicides occurred worldwide in 2015. According to a research in 2015, about 29.2% of Malaysians, aged 16 and above are having mental problems.The incline rate of common mental illnesses such as anxiety disorder and depression cases starting in youth is undeniable. However, this issue seems to get fewer spotlights than it deserves. Stereotyping of public on mental illness issues is real problem happening in Malaysia. This often leads to unwillingness of one to seek for professional help. Besides, it also causes one to not share their feeling and thus getting less support from their loved one. In other cases, family or their close one is the major issue that leads to mental illness. Their closed one is those who discriminate them. This situation definitely hurt them more and make it worst. On the other hand, for the public who wanted to give a hand and concern about mental health in Malaysia, they couldn’t find a proper way to offer help.  

Minyak Beku is a mukim in Batu Pahat, Johor. This area is famous for its beautiful beach and its history. Unfortunately, the villagers have low awareness on sustainability and pollutions. SJKC PING MING is located in a fishing village located at Minyak Beku, Batu Pahat, Johor. This primary school has low number of students, which is less than 100. Almost 99% of the students are from the fishing village where their parents work in the fish industries. Inside the school compound there is a small abandoned agriculture land. Hence, AQSA decide to guide the students in SJKC PING MING to reuse the abandoned agriculture land in a sustainable way of 5R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover and Repair).According to The Star, Malaysia generates about 38,000 tonnes of solid waste per day. From this, nearly half of the total solid waste consist of food waste, 44.5%. Most of this wastage conditions also occur in other developing countries. Excess food waste has become a worldwide problem as it is impacting the environment negatively. In the landfill, anaerobic digesters break down food waste in an oxygen-free environment. Methane is produced during the food waste undergoing anaerobic decomposition. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases, which contributes to global warming. Composting the food waste is an alternative method compared to landfill or incinerating. Food waste decomposition also helps to save space in landfills and reduce the methane emission. Composting is a natural process, where the decomposer breaks down organic materials into a dark rich substance. The compost can help to suppress plant diseases and enrich the soil.

In this tech savvy generation where information access is in the fingertips of users, the term “mental health illness” is not new. In Sunway campus itself, it has been mentioned from time to time. But the stigma related to the mental health illness is still there. This is because of the lack of proper awareness about mental health illness. That is why we are doing this program to break the taboos and increase the awareness of mental health illness in Sunway community.

Johor coastal area had lost up to four meters annually (adapted from Berita Harian 11th of September 2017) due to the erosion of wave against the shore and the banks experienced continuously. A few areas that had been identified where the level of erosion is very critical is Batu Pahat, Tanjung Piai, Pontian and Kukup Island. The most affected area is Tanjung Piai where the wave is larger due to ships intervention at the waterways. This is because, the mangrove swamps are narrowing in its size, mangrove plant know to serve as a buffer against wave erosion.Other than that, we had observed other problems that arise with the current situation of narrowing mangrove swamps which is the decrease of seafood captured by those fishermen. This will definitely affect fishermen monthly income and seafood production, especially in Johor.Therefore, Mangrove seedlings is an important process to solve this problem. Mangrove seedlings are the process where we will put all the seeds in particular polybags. These seedlings will be placed in protected mangrove swamps. Monitoring of seedlings will be done for the period of 5-6 months and those mangrove plant will be taken out to be planted at the highlighted area.