A journey to uplift underprivileged children | Star Golden Hearts Award 2025 - video Dailymotion

The Star

Meet Mohamed Nazri Prem Nasir, the founder of BINA Malaysia, who began supporting families in Kepong during the Covid-19 pandemic and has since empowered hundreds of underprivileged children through education, awareness, and skill-building initiatives.  For his noble efforts, Mohamed Nazri is named as one of the 10 winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2025, an annual award by The Star that honours everyday Malaysian unsung heroes.  For more details, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00So hi, my name is Muhammad Nazri bin Prem Naseh. I'm currently pursuing my law degree at University of Malaya.

00:05I'm the founder of Bina Malaysia. So I'm one of the recipients of Star Gooden Hearts Award 2025.

00:23It all began in 2020 when the first year University Malaya Law student,

00:28Muhammad Nazri Prem Naseh saw families struggling to put food on the table during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:38What started as a small effort to distribute food donations in Kepung soon revealed deeper issues,

00:44especially among children who lacked access to education and basic resources.

00:50That discovery became the foundation for his journey in community work,

00:54eventually shaping the vision behind Bina Malaysia with the help of five office high school friends.

01:01So during COVID, we started with food donation where we travel to our neighbourhood areas

01:07where we actually donate some food for B40 community, especially in PPR, houses.

01:12Then we started to realise that most of the kids, they have a very limited kind of education resources.

01:18So we come up with an online programme where we do a free tuition programme,

01:22especially for eight ailing driver's children.

01:25Because I realised during that time, it was very hard for them since they don't really have a sufficient income.

01:30So we want to bring the resources to them to actually use this education as a tool to uplift their family.

01:36So that's how actually we started with small kind of programmes.

01:39And then, turns up, we founded our own NGO.

01:42Formed in 2021, Bina Malaysia is a youth-led organisation

01:50dedicated to empowering underprivileged children through knowledge, confidence and awareness.

01:58Among its key initiatives is Project Ninja Yeril or Rise Up in Tamil,

02:03a programme designed to help students from Indian vernacular schools

02:06overcome language barriers and transition smoothly into secondary education.

02:11Majority of SJKT students, when they actually continue their studies in high school,

02:16they have a lot of barriers, like for example, language barriers.

02:20So we target on a rural kind of SJKT schools where we go and do programmes

02:25to actually boost up their confidence and also to break the language barrier

02:29where we focus on different themes like culture, mental health, leadership, teamwork.

02:35So we come up with this kind of solution for the kids where they can actually do activity

02:39and at the same time, they can learn some inputs on what they can actually explore

02:43when they enter to high school.

02:45Besides education, Muhammad Nazri and his team also run initiatives

02:49focused on financial literacy through the ABC Duet programme,

02:53mental health awareness under Care for Kita

02:56and skill training workshops for youth.

02:58Muhammad Nazri also leads Project Lindo, an initiative focused on raising awareness

03:05on child sexual grooming.

03:07Bad touch.

03:09Bad touch.

03:10Bad touch.

03:11And I think this thing is a very, it's a stigma in our Malaysian perspective

03:17where we don't really talk openly to our kids about this.

03:20Because whenever I go to the schools, there will be one or two kids that will come

03:24and share to me that they have been a victim of this and they don't really know

03:28what they have to do as a follow-up action.

03:30So through this project, we teach them on what they can actually seek help.

03:35Project Lindo also inspired Nazri to publish a children's story book that educates readers

03:41on good and bad touch, healthy relationships and steps to take if they experience sexual grooming.

03:47The book has been published in 10 languages, distributed across ASEAN countries

03:53and recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records.

03:58Nazri said all of Bina Malaysia's programmes include follow-up measures to ensure long-term impact.

04:05The organisation conducts free sessions at least three times a month for its beneficiaries.

04:11No good comes without its challenges and for Nazri, his age remains one of the biggest

04:17hurdles.

04:18It's very hard for us to actually approach with sponsors.

04:22Sponsors tend to like, will not believe us.

04:24They will reply in a very rude kind of way when we go in and approach them because we are young.

04:30So the only thing that I always tell to my team, we have to make sure that we have an impact

04:36so that we can showcase our impact to them so that they can actually give us sponsors.

04:40That's the first thing.

04:41Second thing I think of course time management because everyone in my NGO, majority of them,

04:45I think more than 90% of us, university students, so it's very hard for us to cope with our

04:50studies and also our project.

04:53For Muhammad Nazri, the mission is deeply personal.

04:57Coming from a humble background, with his father working as a taxi driver and his mother at a

05:02fast food outlet, he knows first-hand the importance of support and opportunities.

05:07It's that same sense of gratitude that continues to drive his work today.

05:13It's very touching when I listen to all the messages from all the voice messages from

05:18their parents.

05:20Sometimes like, I feel tired but this kind of thing actually motivates me all the time.

05:26Looking ahead, Nazri hopes to expand his work beyond BINA Malaysia to continue uplifting

05:31more children through education and empowerment.

05:35This award is more than an award for me.

05:38I see this as a hope for more kids that come from a background like me, from a B40 community.

05:45I just want them to not take an inspiration but to have a hope that they might make a change

05:52in their life.

05:53I hope that this will be a light for them to come out of the darkness of their life right now.

06:01I hope that this will be a light for you.

A journey to uplift underprivileged children | Star Golden Hearts Award 2025

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