Mendaki Club Website

Reaching out to Malay/Muslim Professionals

Among the target audience that MClub wishes to attract and engage, young working professionals are the hardest to reach. Their needs are as diverse as their specialties. We set up the Young Professionals Outreach, a programme targeting young professionals, in 2007, to see how far we can reach out to this group. The programme aims to create platforms for Malay/Muslim youth and professionals to meet and network.

Forum

MClub conducted a large scale forum targeted at young professionals and entrepreneurs titled 'Making Cents of the Global Economy' involving 3 well- known panelists, on 8 September 2007. Response was good and the forum was beneficial to the many who attended, and we wish to organise even better forums.

Conversations

Around the same time, we began a monthly discussion series, called MClub Conversations, where we invited a noted speaker in a specific field (be it social work, youth leadership, political studies) to speak in a small session of about 30 young adults and professionals. We've managed to meet about 90 young professionals and youths from our 10 sessions so far.

Into the future

We are learning along the way the various means and methods to interest and engage young Muslim professionals. Our forthcoming programmes in 2008 and 2009 include:

CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM THOUGHT SERIES
We are partnering the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) to organise a series of lectures and talks by contemporary Muslim scholars, to discuss on a range of relevant contemporary topics. The first scholar were pleased to welcome was Dr Ahmad Syafii Maarif, the Indonesian thinker and reformist, who visited Singapore from 23-25 Oct 08.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS-BUILDING WORKSHOPS
We are partnering with the Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce to offer budding entrepreneurs with the right set of skills and expertise to deftly set up their own business. We hope to roll this programme out before mid 2009.

MClub is constantly on the look out for good opportunities and platforms to engage young professionals. If you think you have an idea, do let us know and we'll be in touch with you to discuss further.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we have the following young professionals who steer the programme after their 9-to-6 working hours:

• Mustafa Izzuddin
• Mohd Jalees
• Aaron Maniam
• Esa Masood

1. Conversations
2. Contemporary Muslim Thought Series (CMTS)