Collaboration with social enterprise GoodKids Malaysia began in 2016, when ECM Libra Foundation agreed to sponsor a 20-week performance art programme for 30 students from Methodist Girls’ School and the Orang Asli community in Kampung Batu 12, Gombak. The programme, which culminated into a stage performance, had given these teens from disadvantaged backgrounds self-confidence and a sense of purpose. As Nory from the Batu 12 village said: “Now we feel as talented as the others. We want to perform on stage again.”
Encouraged by the positive result, the Foundation has continued to support GoodKids’ programme to reach out to at-risk youth and guide them through the use of percussions, performance arts and counselling to teach them life skills, and help them gain self-respect and dignity.
In 2017, 60 students from Methodist Girls’ School, SMK La Salle Sentul, Kampung Batu 12 Gombak and Desa Temuan were funded by ECM Libra Foundation to take part in GoodKids’ 20-week programme, a workshop and a concert.
We continued to expand our funding for students from schools which had been deemed as underperforming and facing high disciplinary issues. Under our sponsorship, 73 students from four secondary schools and one primary school in the Klang Valley attended the GoodKids programme in 2018. Meanwhile, we funded another 70 students from five secondary schools and one primary school to take part in the 2019 programme.
Based on reports, the intervention from the GoodKids programme has yielded good results, with school counsellors/principals reporting fewer disciplinary problems, lower truancy rates, improved self-confidence and motivation to learn.
