August 2016

Inspiring Sustainable Living

EcoKnights E-Newsletter, Vol. 7 - August 2016

Message from the President

What I love about what I do here at EcoKnights is that I’m always surrounded by amazing and talented young people. I’m always the oldest and despite the fact that I’m double their age, some of my most creative and inspiring moments come from them. It doesn’t mean that just because I’ve more experienced than the interns and volunteers, I have nothing to learn from them. A few months back one of them inspired me to take my passion for doodling to the next level. Another one reminded me about the power of vulnerability in all its full positive sense. Recently, I learnt from a female intern that procrastination can sometimes help one be more productive when it’s crunch time.

You see, when people ask me what’s my secret to running EcoKnights – I would look at them with this silly smile and say, “our interns and volunteers”. Because that’s how it really is. And I love them in all their forms, colours and silly mannerisms.

By the way, if you feel like throwing some love our way, how about getting one of our limited edition EcoKnights tee (spotted below on our great looking male interns) for RM50. Proceeds from the sales of the tee shirt will go towards supporting our existing programs like Anugerah Hijau, Composting Workshops and more!

President and Founder

Latest News

National Conference on Sustainability, Climate Change & CSR

On the 28th of July 2016, interns of the EcoKnights and MENGO team attended a National Conference on Sustainability, Climate Change & CSR held at Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa where our very own president and chairperson, Yasmin Rasyid, spoke about CSR. The Minister of Environment, YB Dato’ Sri Dr. Haji Wan Junaidi was also present during the conference.

The Anugerah Hijau 2016 Finalist Workshop

The Anugerah Hijau 2016 finalist workshop took place over the weekend from the 29th to the 31st of July 2016, and the feedback we got from the students was amazing. Not only did the mentors inspire them, but they inspired both mentors and facilitators with their incredible ideas too! We at EcoKnights hope everyone had an amazing time because we sure did.

Read more about it here

Composting Workshop at the EcoKnights Office

We organized a composting workshop (both theory and practical) for about 10 students from UPM on the 5th of August. The workshop was conducted by our intern, Jeremy Hor. We always think that peer-to-peer engagement is the best. The students left the EcoKnights office educated in a different way and full of inspiration. Good job, Jeremy!

Heart of Borneo Youth Seminar

EcoKnights is extremely excited and proud to announce that 4 of our interns have been accepted into the Heart of Borneo Youth Seminar! It will be happening in Brunei between Aug 26th – 28th and our youths will get to debate policies and issues to strengthen the Heart of Borneo trans-boundary initiative. The Heart of Borneo initiative aims to protect Asia’s last great rainforest on the island of Borneo and we are honoured that we will get to contribute to it in some small way. Any more fellow Malaysian youths heading over as well? Give us a holler!

EcoKnights Intern Stories

Mr. Fikri Haikal - Environmental Science in University Malaysia Kelantan

Walla… Hi there, my name is Haikal and I am a final year student, studying Environmental Science in University Malaysia Kelantan. Right now, I am completing my internship at EcoKnights. At first, I didn’t know what EcoKnights is, what their main role is and how their environment at there. My first day at EcoKnights started with horror. I wore formal attire and looked so good but when I entered the EcoKnights office, I saw the staff wearing just t-shirts and all of them gave me puzzled looks (hahaha so embarrassing. That was EcoKnights’ first impression of me).

From there I met Mr. Fadly Bakhtiar or FABS, the brain of EcoKnights as well as my supervisor. I was a programme intern and got assigned many tasks during my internship here at EcoKnights. During that period, I was involved in many programs and events such as the Green Market, Corporate Leadership Forum, Anugerah Hijau, Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival (KLEFF) and Sunway World Environment Day. I felt content because I learned something new here. Thanks to Encik Awang, the coordinator of MENGO because he shared a lot of new things with me especially in organizing the event for the Corporate Company.

First and foremost, EcoKnights inspired me in building my future ambition which is to open up my own NGO g Disaster Planning and Management. The people who inspire me the most right now are my boss at EcoKnights, Mrs. Yasmin Rasyid who is the president of EcoKnights and chairperson of Malaysian Environmental NGO as well as Mr. Fadly Bakhtiar who is the programme director of EcoKnights and my supervisor. Mrs. Yasmin likes to share her knowledge to everyone especially me through our private discussions sometimes. She told me one thing that will forever be etched in my memory: “Be what you like the most.” Furthermore, I like how she encourages youngsters to become good leaders in the future.

Secondly, of course I should talk about my great and legendary leader and my supervisor, Mr. Fadly Bakhtiar. One word for him: “superb”. I was very lucky to have him as my leader during my internship period at EcoKnights. He taught me a lot on how to organize work efficiently as well as improving my English in terms of communication. He knew when to increase my level of motivation when I’m down and have too much work on my plate.

My biggest challenge was the “Corporate Leadership Forum” which was held on the 21st of April 2016 at Sunway Malayana Ballroom 1, Sunway Lost World Hotel, Ipoh, Perak. This event was important to me because I was assigned as the program coordinator. I conducted all the things related to that event such as the implementation, layout plan, itinerary, press release and others with all my MENGO/ EcoKnights team. Thanks to EcoKnights for giving me the opportunity to handle this event. It gave me a lot experience and expanded my knowledge.

Thirdly, I was lucky to have the whole EcoKnights team (Zharif, Syamim, Jae Mie, Shazzuan, Sue May, Emirul) and MENGO team (Aisyah, Nusyi, Masnawi, Anna) during my internship period at EcoKnights. Four words for them: “you guys are awesome”. Last but not least, I will implement all the knowledge and the experience I have gained here to get what I want in my life; my own non-governmental environmental organization in terms of Disaster Planning and Management”.

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