(This is reproduced from the posting I made on my Facebook Page on 24th December 2025.)

The Hiichiikok Foundation was never just about the children’s home. We would want to think that it is much more. We have quite a good list of programs, from providing free tuition, monetary awards to full scholarships for children from the low-income group. I have something that not many entrepreneurs or even philanthropists have – an education group that conducts programs at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, as well as skill-based courses for those who are less academically inclined.

You see, in every business – hotels, airlines, convention halls and educational institutions, among others – we have what we call excess capacities. There are always fixed costs involved, and in our case, a classroom of 20 students will have to bear almost the identical operating costs as a classroom of 25 or even 30 students – the same rental, lecturers and electricity. So many years back, I asked myself a provocative question – why can’t we stop thinking about making money for a moment and start doing some good with the excess capacity?

It turns out a lot of good has come out of the idea to turn unused or unsold placements into sponsored enrollments. Those empty chairs don’t cost us a dime, and neither do they bring us any benefit or revenue. But each of those chairs, if assigned to a needy student from an impoverished background, can change lives and break the cycle of poverty in the household. Of course, in many cases, we also throw in other monetary assistance and free accommodations.

Over the past 2 decades, I believe we have given out hundreds of millions of ringgit worth of scholarships to a really lot of deserving students, quietly but consistently. A single act of support can echo through an entire lifetime. I take pride in knowing that many of these recipients are now productive and constructive members of society. There’re occasions when I would accidentally meet some of them, and they haven’t been shy to express their deep gratitude for the support we have given them and their families in their time of need.

Together with my leaders at SEGi Education Group, we find that this mode of sharing, as part of our corporate social responsibility and as our personal passion for charitable work, can be very meaningful, especially when we are to note the ripple effect it has on the local community. It’s so fortunate that we are in the right place with the right resources to be able to be someone’s beacon of hope. We know that every full scholarship given is a seed planted. And the harvest is society’s to share.