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.
03:09Bad 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 and share to me
03:25that they have been a victim of this and they don't really know what they have to do
03:29as 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
03:40that educates readers on good and bad touch, healthy relationships and steps to take
03:45if they experience sexual grooming.
03:49The 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.
04:13And for Nazri, his age remains one of the biggest hurdles.
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.
04:48So it's very hard for us to cope with our studies and also our projects.
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 fast food outlet,
05:03he knows firsthand the importance of support and opportunities.
05:08It'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 their parents.
05:19Sometimes, 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 more 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 in their life.
05:53I hope that this will be a light for them to come out of the darkness of their life right now.
05:59I hope that this will be a light for you.
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