Goodday Milk Recognised By Malaysia Book Of Records For The Biggest Kidpreneur Programme
10-year-old Fatimah Basyeerah bagged the first prize of RM20,000 after pitching her idea of a cognitive skills recovery app to help stroke patients.
By Jeremy Ng — 15 Feb 2023, 06:27 PM
Goodday Milk recently concluded Goodday KidSTART, the biggest kidpreneur challenge in the country, as certified by The Malaysia Book of Records
Launched in November 2022, the challenge saw 340 participants across the nation take part in a competition designed to create financial literacy among children, as well as drive the spirit of entrepreneurship and responsibility.
According to Etika's Vice President of Marketing, Amy Gan, Goodday KidSTART is a first-of-its-kind programme in Malaysia, and is in line with Goodday Milk Malaysia's mission of providing nutrition that helps children to develop their mind and body.
"Recognising the lack of financial literacy in Malaysian youth, we wanted to equip children with the right knowledge to develop strong money habits early on. Goodday Milk as a brand doesn't just provide goodness in the form of nutrition, but also goodness in the form of wellbeing to the community, in this case financial soundness.
"We are also delighted to be featured in the Malaysian Book of Records as the biggest kidpreneur programme in Malaysia," she said.
From the 340 submissions, 20 children were shortlisted for a two-day bootcamp that concluded with a pitching session to a panel of judges
The judges included:
- Ernie Chen, chairman of Portman Education Group
- Faridah Halina Zairi, founder of Coffee for Good
- Salena Ahmad, founder and CEO of Suri Inspirasi
- Chin Yien Yien, Senior Brand Manager for Goodday Milk
The bootcamp saw the kids go through a series of modules, from learning good entrepreneurial and financial habits to the A-Z's of pitching a business plan to potential investors.
At the end of the bootcamp, eight winners walked away with cash prizes from a fund pool of RM51,000 to kickstart their business ideas.
"We are delighted to see the enthusiastic response of kids aged 7 to 14, who have embraced this innovative program. During the bootcamp, I was particularly humbled and touched to learn of the stories of two finalists who, despite having faced difficult family situations and are in the welfare system, have shown passion and drive to better their lives.
"This experience was truly inspiring, and I'm happy that Goodday KidSTART was able to provide opportunities to invest in a child's early years of development," said Amy.
10-year-old Fatimah Basyeerah bagged the first prize of RM20,000 after pitching her idea of a cognitive skills recovery app to help stroke patients
Hailing from Dengkil, Fatimah said that the idea for the app was born from her desire to help her grandfather who suffered a stroke. Fatimah impressed the judges with her charismatic presentation and ability to articulate her business idea clearly. The judges also collectively expressed their excitement to see the idea come to fruition.
Speaking after her win, Fatimah said, "I did not expect it. I'm so happy, thankful, and excited to grow my business. Goodday Milk and the rest of the team have been very encouraging and I'm looking forward to using the prize money to develop and test my app on stroke patients."
The second prize of RM10,000 went to Ong Joon Zach for his business, CocoCool, an invention that can extract and cool fresh coconut water directly from its fruits hygienically in a single step.
The good news is that there will be a second round of Goodday KidSTART happening later in the year!
"Looking at the overwhelming response we received in round one, we will be launching round two of Goodday KidSTART later this year, so we encourage parents to keep an eye out and urge their kids to enter," said Amy.
