Empowering Youth for a Better Future

By Grace Chen, Monday, 12th August 2013 3:00pm

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The spirit of entrepreneurism breaks the cycle of poverty and

transforms young minds. By Grace Chen.
SIFE Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)
SIFE UMS has been working in tandem with local homestay owners in the Kipouvo
Homestay project to maximise their potential profits in the tourism sector.

A head for business. A heart for the world. This is the slogan of SIFE, or
Students In Free Enterprise. Led by faculty advisors and local business
advisory boards, SIFE reaches out to communities in need, bringing classroom
learning to the real world. Datin Associate Professor Norela Nuruddin heads
this incubator that grooms university students to become socially aware,
ethical business leaders.
There are many words to describe Datin Norela Nuruddin. Argumentative is
not one of them.
Earlier in the interview, the 54-year-old associate professor was asked pointblank whether there was any use pursuing a project with a certain community
of tobacco growers in Sabah, East Malaysia. As she had readily admitted, they
were not living examples of the industrious spirit, but ardent lovers of tuak
(rice wine) so much so that most afternoons were spent nursing hangovers
instead of tending their crops.
Surely there were better candidates than this bunch of complacent drunkards?
Silence. Only the dancing glints of amusement in her eyes betrayed her inner
emotions. They seemed to say, Why, you silly child. You still dont get it, do
you?
SIFE Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
Focusing on promoting financial self-sufficiency, SIFE UUM helps the newly
established women entrepreneurs in improving their muruku and chilli sauce
business to provide income for their family.

In addition to being country director of the SIFE Malaysia Foundation, Norela

is director of the Malaysian Entrepreneurship Development Center (MEDEC)
at University Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
After obtaining her diploma in Tourism Administration, she started her career
in 1986 as a lecturer at the centre. Till today she conducts classes in Business
Planning. A fervent advocate of student entrepreneurship, one of Norelas
idols is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. In
her classes, she often uses Mahathirs establishment in the 80s of Proton,
Malaysias national car, as an example of the entrepreneurial mindset.
Sceptics criticised him because they felt that going into the car industry while
the country was in recession was going to end in disaster. Some even said that
he should have started with something smaller, like a motorbike.
But just take a look at the spin-off. While a motorbike would require only 45
parts, a car needed 315. That itself was an insight into how his mind worked.
More parts meant that more local vendors had to play a part in the national
car project. That translates to more job opportunities. It was a great plan to
revive the economy.
DREAMS COME TRUE
Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN)
SIFE UNITEN engages single mothers and housewives of Kota Bahagia, Pahang to
create ecocraft projects that allow them to earn extra income for their families.

Like Mahathir, Norela, the eldest of 10 siblings, comes from a small town. One
of the highlights of her childhood while growing up in Taiping, Perak, was
when her father, a school headmaster, bought the family a fridge. This was a
big deal back then, for it meant that they could have ice: a boon, especially
during Ramadan. By age 17, her ultimate dream was to visit Disneyland,
thanks to a black and white Hitachi television which gave her a glimpse of the
world beyond.
My father always told me, If you want something, you must put your spirit
into it. Think of it, tell yourself that you are going to achieve it and put this
wish in your heart.
In 1995, Norela realised her teenage dream of visiting Disneyland not as a
tourist, but as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It
took over 20 hours to drive from her Nebraska campus to California. But the

details of her journey are less important than who she met: Dr Robin
Anderson, then director of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship.
I liked him because he was not cocky, she says.
Put in a nutshell, SIFE Malaysia owes its existence to a Hollywood actor. Dr
Anderson brought Norela to a SIFE meeting at Duncan Aviation, an aircraft
maintenance company. Spotting a private jet parked outside the meeting room
window, she casually asked whose it was and discovered that the owner was
Tom Cruise, her favourite movie star.
That was when I decided that I too wanted to be part of SIFE. This was how
much I liked Tom Cruise, she jokes.
PROVIDING SOLUTIONS
The credit does not fully go to Tom Cruise, of course. It is just a way for this
mother of four to say that she started with nothing. But today, she has the
support of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the
Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). Corporate partners like Khazanah
Nasional Berhad, KPMG, CIMB Foundation, Chartis Insurance Malaysia and
TM Berhad have also jumped on board. The 2011 annual report shows that
SIFE Malaysia has nearly 2000 students from public and private institutions.
They have spread out to over 30 teams and are currently overseeing 98
projects.
The most recent annual report from the SIFE division at Universiti Malaysia
Terengganu (UMT) reveals a project in Kampung Pengkalan Gelap, a fishing
village in Terengganu where low incomes and unemployment used to be major
issues. SIFE created a new economic opportunity by introducing a crabfattening project with help from the Institute of Tropical Aquaculture
(AKUATROP), a division of UMT. By assisting the community in building crab
cages and teaching them basic business management skills, SIFE helped the
villagers to gain new knowledge and earn extra income on the side.
SIFE Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP)
In promoting business sustainability, disabled entrepreneurs from Persatuan
Pemulihan Orang Cacat in Perak were assisted by SIFE UTP with entrepreneurial
skills to handle their businesses.

Another addressed the predicament of 60 percent of the 10,000 residents in

Yan, Kedah, a community known for its palm fruit products. Due to the fruits
short shelf life, palm fruit collectors were only able to generate a minimum
monthly income of RM500 (US$163). With help from UMT food science
experts, palm fruit entrepreneurs were taught to turn palm fruit juice into
jelly, creating a new food product for the community. Participants were also
linked to the Muda Agriculture Development Authority, who assisted with
marketing and project sustenance.
So, we go back to the tobacco growers in Sabah.
What Norela and her team did was to introduce the farmers to the practice of
crop rotation. In addition to tobacco, they were introduced to other cash crops
such as rice, eucalyptus and fruit trees.
So, instead of waiting for one crop as they had done in the past, they now had
more to do. The busier schedule eventually meant that they had less time to be
complacent. The community eventually became self-sustaining.
For the university students who have joined SIFE, Norela has only one aim: to
instil in them the entrepreneurial mindset with the three Ps: people, planet
and profits, in that order.
Norela Nuruddin

Not only does it encourage them to be creative and morally conscious at the
same time, but it rids them of the worker syndrome. A staff member who
thinks that his job responsibilities are only from nine to five does not have the
enterprising spirit.
For progress to come, he must be constantly motivated to think of ways to
increase revenue which will also benefit the surrounding community. In the
past, mention the word business and the first thing that comes to mind is
profits. The mindset was Lets make as much as we can, and nothing was
thought of the community. The slew of problems that came with greed
inadvertently ate into the business itself when the very community that
supported the establishment collapsed, says Norela. Her goal is simple: to
reduce the influence of poverty on communities. To achieve this aim, the
solution must have the ability to create wealth that will bring education
opportunities, health and nutrition, a sense of worth for the men,
empowerment for the women and a secure environment for the children.

As the expression goes, Todays youth are tomorrows leaders. Norelas

decision to direct her message to young people ensures that her lessons will go
deep. It is her greatest hope that the mistakes of the past are never repeated.