Noorhizah’s first contact with Yayasan MENDAKI was when she came to collect a loan from for her sister who was overseas. At that point of time, her only remarks towards MENDAKI was “ehhh …hulu-nya tempat ini” (the place is deserted). Noorhizah was also one of the students in the Weekend Tuition Scheme (WTS). She claimed she had been forced by her mother to join WTS for her secondary 4 level. She was actually dared by her friend to join MENDAKI. Her friend whose application for loan was not successful challenged her, if she can join MENDAKI and find out if the processing for loans scheme is fairly done. Noorhizah claimed that her application for a job in Yayasan MENDAKI was by luck. She even didn’t expected to be placed in the Education Department. In the Education Department, she was assigned to assist in the Study Loans, TTFS, Awards and Scholarships unit. She was in that unit for 5 years. Noorhizah was surprised that she found that MENDAKI had done a lot for community. She also realized that this was not seen by the community. The first step she did was when she circled her relatives and friends. She explained to them what Yayasan MENDAKI could offer to the community. As she was attached in Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TTFS) unit, she did the explanation to her relatives and friends on what was the difference between TTFS Fund and MMCDF Fund. Despite the explanation, she found that it was a tough effort to make community understand on the TTFS matters. In the past, she said what the community see was target only to the elite. Now, she realized that the focus changed from those elite group to those 30% low-income group. She claimed received less negative feedback from public now. She even received a supportive and helpful public who obtained information for their neighbours. She now feels more confident about her employment in MENDAKI. The milestone that changes was seen in 2002. She felt the changes in the programmes were gradually changed. In early 90’s, the well-known programmes was Weekend Tuition Scheme (WTS). Now the programmes that are popular are “Programme Bijak Belanja”, TigaM, ChahayaM, Education Trust Fund, etc. MClub Graduates’ Tea was the key programme in MClub then. Now MClub has more focus towards the Top 10% students for enrichment programme and the professionals for the conversation series. Even though there are great programmes now, there is still worked to be done. Noorhizah look forward to have more outreach in different approach. (Interviewed by Arfah Ibrahim, for the irememberMENDAKI campaign)
