University-community engagement programme : social enterprise for economic development (SEED)

SEED which is a community development programme was used as a platform to embark on entrepreneurial principles by organising, creating and managing a venture to make social changes in a small finishing village in the north eastern state of Kelantan, one of the many states in Malaysia. This inter cultural leadership and enterprise development programme expose participants, namely students of universities, to the unique context of the villages and by working through multicultural teamwork and also in consultation and discussion with the villagers, they actively engage in social entrepreneurship leading to later on developing viable business plans.The business plans will than be presented by the students to potential sponsors and financiers such as venture capitalist and banks in the presence of the villagers concerned. This programme as up to now have proved to be successful whereby out of 7 business plans proposed, 2 projects have taken off and have helped to elevate the economic situation of the family involved. Hence UMK would like to share this programme and experiences through poster presentations with fellow participants in the up-coming University-Community Engagement Conference