EK Newsletter - December 2018
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Message From President of EcoKnights, Yasmin Rasyid.
"Tis the season to be jolly, fa lalalala lalalala"
Christmas is always sentimental and emotional for me. For one, it marks the end of the year, and it's also the time the entire office takes a long break (I call it a combination of rejuvenation and hibernation) before we kick start 2019. Secondly, Christmas is also the time we reflect on the people around us, and be thankful with who and what we have in our lives.
It has been a wild year for us here at EcoKnights, our team is gradually expanding, and this year was a record for many of our engagements. We wouldn't be able to do it without you - your support, your participation and your believe in us and what we are doing to contribute to sustainable development in the country.
So here's our last newsletter for the year, and from the bottom of our hearts, we would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Latest News
Hot From The Oven: The Brandlaureate CSR Leadership Awards 2018
On 20th of December, EcoKnights Founder and President Yasmin Rasyid, together with Program Director Fadly Bakhtiar attended the award ceremony of The Brandlaureate CSR Brandleadership Awards 2018. After whole night of waiting with butterflies in the stomach, it was finally announced that Yasmin won the Community Leadership Award as the President and Acting Executive Director of EcoKnights. Congratulations to Yasmin and the team, and a big thank you to everyone who has supported us.
Let EcoKnights Know What You Think About Volunteerism So That We Can Provide Better Volunteering Opportunities
While preparing for the joyous holiday celebrations with your friends and family, it’s important to stop and reflect on the joy and blessings you can give back to the community.
Let’s help our intern Marin Mihai David from University of Twente (Netherlands) conduct his research about the link between technology and volunteerism. This survey will also help in developing an online volunteering platform on the EcoKnights website.
Your responses will have a positive impact in helping improve what we do by completing this 5-minute anonymous questionnaire. Thank you in advance!
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KLEFF 2018 Final Report: What We’ve Achieved
It’s been 2 months since the 11th KLEFF and EcoKnights would like to thank everyone for your support. The committee would like to share the KLEFF 2018 Final Report on the impact achieved through this festival.
EcoKnights Internship Impact Report
As part of youth development, EcoKnights has been witnessing the come and go of 30 interns from 2016 to 2018. The interns and their skills contributed much to EcoKnights while they went through self-development, hence EcoKnights did a survey on their feedback regarding the internship program and how can the program be improved. Let’s see what the interns say about their time with EcoKnights here.
30 Teachers Trained Towards Inspiring Sustainability
In a recent collaboration with Petaling Jaya Local Council in support of their Low Carbon City Framework, EcoKnights President Yasmin Rasyid has led a workshop of sustainable practices in nurseries and kindergartens to 30 teachers. Young children are the heirs of our environment and it is of greatest hope that they are inspired to be responsible to the nature as early as possible. Read more about the workshop here.
School Holiday Gardening Workshop for 120 Students
In collaboration with Segambut Member of Parliament YB Hannah Yeoh, EcoKnights has conducted a fun and engaging DIY Self-watering System Workshop at S.K. Segambut Makmur. The recipients are 120 local students from different schools. Through this workshop, it is believed that the students are now equipped with the skills to create their little green corner at home, reducing the waste and enhancing the air quality at the same time. Check out the photo footage here.
Eco Enzyme Workshop & Garden Maintenance @ Starbucks Green Outreach Programme
Together with Starbucks Malaysia, EcoKnights further engaged with Starbucks customers through 2 ecoenzyme workshops. They also had another community engagement with residents at Taman Ikan Emas to take care of the edible garden reguarly. Read more about the workshop at Kota Kemuning and Alam Damai, and also the edible garden maintenance at Taman Ikan Emas.
Nissan Nurtures Nature in Central Peninsular
After the journey to Ipoh in October, EcoKnights team continued to extend their influence in Seremban and Cheras, showing the potential Nissan car owners how they can reuse the plastic bottles and turn them into a self-watering system. Different types of herbs were used during the campaign. Check out the list of herbs here.
H2Ours@Rhythm Fiesta: Spreading Water Awareness
A water-themed carnival named H2Ours was conducted at Gamuda Gardens concurrently with their Rhythm Fiesta. All the activities carried out during the carnival were surrounded the topic of water conservation. Let’s find out the water awareness activities here.
Composting in the Nature: Garbage to Garden Workshop at Taman Tugu
Invited by Friends of Taman Tugu, EcoKnights held a garbage to garden composting workshop in the natural forest of Taman Tugu. Types of composting system, basic concepts in composting, and the insect indicator associated with composting were introduced to the participants. Read more here.
River Of Life (ROL)
Learning in the River: EcoKnights River Explorer Program
What can be more exciting to children than learning about nature when being in it themselves? EcoKnights team has just conducted another River Explorer Program in collaboration with Tatana Roots at the end of November, at Taman Warisan, Gombak. The children learnt about the lifeforms in the river such as what they indicate, and where to look for them, before being rewarded a leisure time playing while exploring in the river. Read more about the program here.
Achievement Unlock: Planting 100 Fruit Trees in 2018
The third and final tree-planting programme initiated by Vanke Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd was done last month at Surau Al-Falahiah 1Razak Mansion and Bunus River Retention Pond respectively. The programme was attended by more than 100 volunteers besides the officers from Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) and Vanke Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd. Congratulations to Vanke for completing the riverbank rehabilitation project.
Empowering Lecturers towards River Conservation
EcoKnights together with Expressionz hosted 30 lecturers from Malaysia and Indonesia during SEASHEL 2018 to show the academicians the efforts that have been carried out to conserve Bunus River and Kerayong River. It is hoped that these academicians can make use of their expertise and resources to bring the awareness to another level in near future. Check out the photo footage here.
Green Tips for Christmas
Christmas is the biggest season of the year for gatherings, sharing and laughter. Not forgetting a lot of gift exchange too. Statistics has shown that we generate more wastage during festive seasons, so why don’t we tweak our Christmas a little bit towards the greener side?
Green Tip 1 - Use natural potted tree and LED lights for your Christmas tree
Green Tip 2 - Choose the decorative items that you can keep for next year
Green Tip 3 - Bring your recycle bags and shop for locally-made products
Green Tip 4 - Re-gift the gifts that you didn’t use
Green Tip 5 - Wrap your gifts with newspaper instead
Green Tip 6 - Customised your Christmas cards from unused materials
Green Tip 7 - Don’t cook extra or fridge the excess for next meal
Green Tip 8 - Use bamboo straws for drinks in gatherings and parties
What Our Interns Say
Recently two amazing interns served their internship with us and what can we say, they are as always, superb. Let’s have a read on what they have to say about their internship experience with us.
Alya Razali
Hello everyone, I am Alya fresh graduate from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and I was a former intern at EcoKnights. It is truly my honour to share with everyone a few valuable moments that I had experienced in EcoKnights throughout my internship period.
The very first day I started working, it took me some time to “warm up” with all knights in EK as I am a shy and slightly passive kind of person but I can assure you that no matter what type of a person you are, you would always feel welcomed by EcoKnights team. This is the place that allows me to be myself as well as grow and improve my skills from time to time. I don’t know about other place, but in EK we were invited to join workshops to enhance our skills in project management and also communication which I assume it is one of the most valuable skills that should be possess in order to get you hired in the industry.
I was given a chance to experience various kinds of job scope from as simple as writing official letters to ministries into managing hospitality of local and international film makers coming from all around the world during Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival 2018. I cannot thank EK enough for all guidance and opportunity they provide me as now I gain more confidence to get out of my comfort zone and excited to experience new things in life.
If you are looking for an internship place, I would highly suggest EcoKnights. It provides you a proper platform for you to experience the adventure of work life and understand how NGO really works. These amazing people in EK will gladly assist you all the way. Thank you so much to the core team, Nabs, Mok, Em, Jo, Luq and also my bosses Fabs, Yasmin, and Amlir. Thank you so much for the experience. Such a honour to be part of your team. Thank you so much.
Maddy
Time flies so fast in EcoKnights. In just the blink of an eye, my internship came to an end. It has been quite hectic ever since day 1. I have been involved in many different things and I get so much out of these experiences.
I was assigned as a graphic design intern when I was working with EcoKnights. My main tasks are to help the team to make creative contents. Even though I am a mass communication student, I don’t always see myself as a very creative person. Coming into this position, I felt that I lacked confidence about what I could do especially in designing.
But EcoKnights is an amazing place to discover your hidden talent and get a better understanding of your skill sets. The seniors and bosses are always there to guide and give me enough freedom to try new things. End up I have learned a new software, designed a few simple visual collaterals and made a few videos! As this was my first time handling content as a designer, I learned to see things from new perspective too!
One of my accomplishment during internship was creating the promotional video for Kuala Lumpur Eco film festival (KLEFF). I’m really proud to have the opportunity to make a video for the film festival. Unexpectedly this task has built up my confidence and interest in making videos after receiving compliments and encouragements from the seniors.
I really enjoyed the process of making this video, as I had the chance to watch the incredible films submitted by the film makers from all over the world. I felt so sad when I know better about the environmental issues especially those occurring in our country, but at the same time I felt so touched and inspired by the stories and the actions taken. All these films are really worth spreading out for more people to watch!
Besides staring at the screens, I have chances to take part in different interesting events and workshops as well such as being a photographer for tree planting event, helping out at our booth in a green carnival, guiding public in a DIY self-watering system workshop, conducting games and being videographer for Knights of Nature camp and so on!
EcoKnights is a small organization but they manage to coordinate a variety of events (even South East Asia’s largest and longest running film festival) with limited resources. Everyone has a significant and important role to play. During my internship, I have learned a lot about effective time and communication management especially getting people to understand you clearly, work wise and solve the challenges together as a team in a demanding environment.
I always wanted to know how Malaysia’s environmental organisation function and I’m glad I joined and figured it out. It’s really exciting to work together with a bunch of passionate people, striving for a better environment.
Thanks EcoKnights for the experiences! I cherish it and I’m sure our paths will cross again in the near future! Let’s grow better and stronger together!
About Tanamera Hearts - A Tripartite Partnership to Benefit Community and The Environment.
Tanamera Hearts is a tripartite smart partnership among Tanamera, The Good Shop and EcoKnights. The aim of this collaboration is to achieve dual goals of improving the livelihood of beneficiaries from marginalised communities and to achieve sustainable environmental development for local communities through entrepreneurism.
Tanamera Hearts comprise of an aromatherapy stone, and a bottle of essential oil, packed in a beautiful dark blue travel case produced by the beneficiaries of the Good Shop. Tanamera Hearts is a perfect gift for loved ones, and also a great travel item if you would love to be surrounded by familiar aromatherapy scents. You can choose from a variety of essential oils to use with the aromatherapy stone.
About EcoKnights
EcoKnights is a non-for-profit environmental organization registered with the Registrar of Societies Malaysia. EcoKnights' core focus areas are in environmental education and awareness using innovative and creative platforms. More information about EcoKnights can be obtained from www.ecoknights.org.my.
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