Dear friends,
 
UMIC’s "Back to School" project is back again for the year 2009. This is our 4TH YEAR and we thank the members for the support and understanding. It is beyond dispute that without support from forum members, and caring community, we could have not envisioned the success of this program thus far. Early this year we successfully concluded the
project, whereby we sponsored 92 students (a big jump from 59 in 2007) from SJKT Bkt Darah, SJKT Ldg Sg Buloh, SJKT Ldg Bradwall, and also the children of our single mothers program, who had difficulties in meeting the school expenses due to their unfortunate poor conditions. Photos of previous Back To School events can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/umic.photos/BackToSchool2008SJKTBukitDarah and http://umic.shutterfly.com.  Beyond just providing uniforms and school bags, we also helped to cover expenses for extra classes and school activities at both these schools.
 
For the record, below is the number of recipients since the ineption of Back To School program:
2008: 92 students from SJKT Bkt Darah, SJKT Ldg Sg
Buloh, and SJKT Ldg Bradwall
2007: 59 students from SJKT Bkt Darah and SJKT Ldg Sungai Buloh
2006: 35 students from SJKT Bkt Darah.
 
Due to the support by the public via UMIC, the teachers, and also the effort by students and parents, we are able to announce SJKT Ldg Sungai Buloh’s passing increased from 11.7% in 2007 to 50% in 2008, but unfortunately no repeat of the 7As students. For SJKT Bukit Darah, the overall passing rate increased from 44.1% to 60%.
Slowly, we can see the students results improving due to the commitment of the teachers and school, added with financial support from the community.

In the near future, our target is to achieve 100% passing rate. Again, all this is only possible due to the overwhelming, continuous support and commitment shown by people from all walks of life, who contribute through us. The funds were used to cover the lunch expenses during weekend classes, purchase of study materials, payment of fees for student participation in events, etc.
 

Over the last 2 years, we have increasingly helped more students, and the trend continues this year. This year, we have identified about 56 poor students from SJKT Bukit Darah in Sg Buloh  and SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh in Bkt Rotan These students are facing difficulties to step foot into school again due to their unfortunate family backgrounds of single mothers, labourers, phyisically/mentally disabled parents, medically affected parents, etc.

The parents can’t afford to provide these young souls the education and the study materials which will provide them a better future and to contribute to the community growth. This project is in line with our focus and objective to assist poor students to continue to excel their education and to kill off the young age school dropout rates.
 
The breakdown and total cost are as below:
1. SJKT Bkt. Darah, Sg Buloh – 27
2. SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh, Bkt Rotan – 29
3. SJKT Ldg Bradwall, Siliau – Not received names yet.
Total – 56 students (Expected to increase)
Estimated total expenses – RM 9,040 (minimum)
 
The amount may look big, but when our community puts its mind to it, we can achieve the target. Imagine that we received a total of RM11,400 in 2008! Once again, this is a mere inkling of the capability, support, and community-consciousness of the readers.

 
The students list is will be update by early next week on our website at  www.umic.org.my. Those without access to website may request the list from the contact persons below. Similar to last year, interested donors can adopt one or more students from the student list which has been published by UMIC Charity Wing . The approximate cost per student based on age will be as below:
1. Std 1 – RM140
2. Std 2 – RM140
3. Std 3 – RM160
4. Std 4 – RM160
5. Std 5 – RM180
6. Std 6 – RM180
7. Secondary – RM200

The cost per student above includes the basic needs (2 pairs of uniform, school bag, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of socks, shoe polish, water bottle, exercise books, & stationeries) AND also to cover for motivation seminar, education seminar, extra classes, and purchase of workbooks. We invite interested donors to contact the following committee members below for more info and pledge:
 
 
Koppal 019-2796669 / koppalai@epsontoyocom.com
Poobalan 019-2664042 / mpoobalan@gmail.com
Muru 012-3072027 / murudevi@yahoo.com
Rajj 016-2200765 / l0rd_huntsman@yahoo.com
 
Account details are as below:

Name: UNITED MALAYSIAN INDIAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CLUB (UMIC)
ROS No:0867-08-SEL
Bank: RHB
Branch: IOI Mall, Puchong
Acc no: 2-12125-0011434-0
 
Upon banking-in, kindly SMS your name and amount to any of the above numbers.
 
 
Pls visit http:///www.umic.org.my and http://www.umic.com.my for more details of the club and the projects/events (we are still updating the website, so do bear with us). Again, we look forward for your support. More info will be posted as it is made available. Please forward this to your friends and family members.
 
Thank you.

MSC Malaysia’s Technopreneur Pre-Seed Fund Programme is initiated in RMK9 to catalyze the creation of local Technopreneurs.

The targeted beneficiaries are local Technopreneurs. Only individuals
are eligible to apply, not existing companies. The programme offers up to RM150k
of conditional funding to develop viable business plans into
commercially focused ICT projects with prototype and detailed business
plans suitable for venture funding & commercialization.

 Visit MSC Malaysia website for more details
 

What?

Saraswathy IT Challenge 2008 would be the
platform for participants to produce any business idea related to IT and to
compete with number of others and outshine to receive the awards and
recognition.

Who?

It is open to Malaysian Indian students &
Indian working professionals

Hmmm..something funny happened. My article not appearing! Rupa – rupanya, I typed in the wrong editor. Wonder why I see two editors in Mindsblog’s "write post" section.

Anyway, let me try to rewrite what I wrote earlier: 

Not sure what inspired me to write in Mindsblog today. The "write a post" button looked tempting, and now I find myself staring at the editor, devoid of any ideas.

The last thing I wrote on my blog was about my first earning from blogging. Guess I’ll talk about that.

I’m sure many of us have some sort of ad on our blogs. Do you all monitor the progress or worthiness of such ads? I for one, haven’t logged into Adsense for a long time now.

How are your ads doing? Adsense, Nuffnang, Advertlets etc? Any comments?

Photography does not rank high on the list of hobbies for the average Malaysianindians?. Indians are not averse to photography, as can be attested to by any visit to a traditional Indian home, the walls are typically draped with large, elaborately framed family pictures. However, most Indians rely on studios and professional photographers to take formal pictures. For major occasions such as weddings, photographers are hired to record the proceedings. Why?

The question..
1. Are they lazy to snap pictures?
2. Expensive ‘Gadgets’?
3. Unaware of the photography world?
4. Shy to carry the around the equipment or snap infront of crowds?

It even worst, When comes to photography and videography, Its not possible for us to carry so many gadgets travelling around. Most of the point and shoot cameras have video mode which enable you to shoot short movies but you can’t do the same with an DSLR camera (profesional photography). So if you are carrying an SLR, you are forced to carry another camera which can record movies. If you are like me carrying more than one lens which is already a burden, carrying one more camera is a much bigger pain.

When it comes to take photo in public places or infront of a group of people we will feel uncomfortable. This is so common when you’re 1st start to snap pictures. Even myself felt the same way until now. I did the survey with some of my indian friends. These are the option they choose, supported by their answer. (Quite funny)

Ms Amutha says:
2. Expensive ‘Gadgets’?
eh.. bcoz its expensive. ppl rather invest the money in some other stuff eg cars, computers etc

Mr Mohan says:
1. Are they lazy to snap pictures?
they dont have interest..  so they are lazy to do it

Mr Vinoth says:
3. Unaware of the photography world?
alot of people dont see photography and photos as art, to them its just another picture

Ms Devi says:
3. Unaware of the photography world?
individual perferences

Ms Punitha says:
3. Unaware of the photography world?
They just snap for fun, not as an interest. Because! most of the indians snap just for themselves..to keep it as their memories..

Mr Kavilan says:
1) not lazy, just dont have the skills
2) yep, expensive… im content wit simple shots from my camera fone
3) photography worls is just of no interest for me
4) not shy.. just dont wanna be carrying bulky equipment all around.. i only take photos on holiday trips
 

If you have similar feedback? Leave a Comment.

 
Whats New? 

Nikon unveil its new DSLR camera the Nikon D90 which is the first DSLR camera to feature video recording as well as stills capability. The Nikon D90 DSLR camera has a 12MP sensor that’s capable of shooting 4.5 frames a second, there’s also live view which is frequently becoming the view of choice for DSLR users and it looks like geotagging will be a reality, with the D90 rumoured to be equipped with GPS capabilities.

The Nikon D90 also features a new lens which is expected to be  a 18-105mm f3.5-5.6G DX VR.

More info about Nikon D90. Please Visit

DPreview