Charity in their hearts: Three winning teams of the idea pitching competition during the Click! Camp 4.0 at Hotel Royal, Penang.

A GROUP of students from Mahang in Kedah received a RM300 grant which they plan to use as seed money to raise funds to help flood victims in the rural outback.

SMK Mahang student Fatin Bashri, 15, said her five-member team would organise a movie night at their school and collect donations.

“The flood season in June, November and December is always difficult for the villagers in our community and the profit from our project will be used to help victims,” said Fatin.

“We don’t have a cinema in our small town and the nearest one is quite far away.

“A movie night will be something of a treat too for the Mahang community,” she said.

Other schools that received the grant included SMK Lahat (Perak) and SMK Padang Polo (Penang).

The three teams received the seed funding of RM300, trophies and a certificate each during a three-day ‘Click! 4.0’ camp organised by the United States Embassy.

The Penang camp, held over three days at a hotel, was part of the US Embassy’s fourth annual nationwide social innovation camp.

At the camp, 65 students from Perak, Penang, Kedah and Johor worked on improving their command of English and their leadership skills to prepare for the ‘Idea Pitching’ competition held on the last day.

The teams then pitched ideas for evalua-tion by a panel of three judges comprising US Embassy Cultural Affairs officer Arend C. Zwhartjes, Green entrepreneur Zye Ramli from Work Palette and senior lecturer from Universiti Sains Malaysia School of Management Shahidan Shafie.

Zwhartjes said the winning teams were chosen because their plans were relevant to their respective communities.

The schools involved were SMK Air Itam, SMK Hutchings, SMK Permatang Tok Labu, SMK Mak Mandin and SMK Padang Polo from Penang; SMK Lahat, SMK Dato Seri Maharaja Lela, SMK Dato Idris in Perak; SMK Mahang and SMK Dato’ Berjaya Setia (Kedah); and SMK Kota Masai 2, SMK Taman Seri Kluang, and SMK Teknik from Johor.

The second leg of the camp will be held in Kuching from May 23 to 25 and another camp at Kuala Terengganu from June 17 to 19.

Read more : http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Community/2014/05/09/Movie-night-to-raise-funds-for-flood-victims/