109 MAIWP industrial skills trainees receive certificates

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Bernama) -- A total of 109 trainees who underwent the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) Industrial Skills Training for Asnaf (those eligible to receive zakat or tithe) programme, have completed their training and were feted at the graduation and appreciation ceremony today.

MAIWP member, Zainal Abidin Shaikh Zakaria, said that the Industrial Skills Training for Asnaf assistance programme was aimed at helping trainees to break out of the cocoon of poverty through knowledge by strengthening their competencies and skills, as well as further improving their marketability in employment.

“This event is for us to introduce them (MAIWP graduates) and that MAIWP is an organisation that cares about asnaf. We (MAIWP) are proud of them and want to celebrate them.

“We want to develop asnaf because we don't want just to give fish, we give rods and hooks so that they can work on their own. MAIWP provides assistance but in the end, they are the ones who will go out in the real world and work,” he said when met by reporters after the graduation ceremony.

Zainal Abidin, who officiated the ceremony, also presented certificates to all trainees who underwent the programme in various fields at seven institutions. Seven of them received best student prizes in the form of cash of RM500 each.

Apart from that, a mock cheque of RM3 million was also presented to the trainees’ representative, Mohd Fazlen Morshidi, to assist the students in the payment of tuition fees and monthly subsistence allowance throughout the training programme.

Meanwhile, it was a bittersweet feeling for Rodzlan Salleh, 64, who received the certificate on behalf of his late son, Mohammad Fadzillah, who died of a brain tumour, on March 1.

The late Mohammad Fadzillah, 26, also received an excellent student award in construction at the Malaysian Construction Academy.

Rodzlan said that his late son was a keen learner and had high ambitions, and intended to buy a machine after graduation.

“During his study, Mohammad Fadzillah did not seem very ill and he was eager to study. Then he fell into a coma for a week at the Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz before he died,” he said when met by reporters after the ceremony.

-- BERNAMA