Digi Challenge for Change announces top three finalists at KL Converge

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August 26, 2015
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NEWS RELEASE

For immediate publication

Digi Challenge for Change announces top three finalists at KL Converge

Three winning ideas move to solutions development phase

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 August 2015 - Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) today announced the three finalists for the first phase of its Digi Challenge for Change (DigiCFC) programme. Now in its sixth year, DigiCFC is a flagship Digi Empower Societies programme that focuses on engaging social purpose organisations (SPOs) and solution providers (SPs) to create technology solutions that address common social issues in Malaysia.

The three (3) SPO finalist teams, namely Dialogue in the Dark & Genashtim, PS The Children & Association of Registered Childcare Malaysia, and Science of Life Studies 24/7 (SOLS 24/7) will now move into the next phase of the challenge. In this phase, they will work with solution providers (SPs) to design and develop innovative internet-enabled solutions based on their initial ideas in hopes to create sustainable, inclusive socio-economic impact for their targeted communities.

Albern Murty, Digi's Chief Executive Officer said, "We have a strong focus on benefiting more people from being connected to the internet to inspire a better Malaysia. Through Digi Challenge for Change, we will cultivate a culture of continuous innovation that enables great ideas to come to life; ideas that meet specific community needs empowered by mobile internet."

The three (3) proposals that were selected by the judges today are:

Team Proposals Dialogue in the Dark & Genashtim A social business idea to develop an online communication centre that can be operated by the visually impaired. This platform aims to give the visually impaired more accessibility to the global economy and equal opportunity for a sustainable livelihood. PS The Children & PPBM A mobile childcare registry that lists all childcare centres nationwide, including those currently unregistered. The app will also be a one-stop child abuse reporting platform, to trigger fast response by relevant authorities to resolve these incidences. It is hoped that this increased transparency will encourage greater compliance among service providers to local childcare regulations, give parents assurance of credible childcare centres and decrease the number of avoidable injuries and death of children in centres nationwide. SOLS 24/7 A mobile application that serves as a centralised platform that allows end-to-end tracking of all SOLS 24/7 efforts. This includes the refurbishment, delivery and maintenance of computers to labs serving underserved communities, and mobilising volunteers to facilitate learning of the English language and digital literacy to these communities.

Raj Ridvan Singh, Director of Science of Life Studies 247 said, "We are extremely excited and grateful to Digi for organising this event and recognising what we are doing for the community. We look forward in bringing our ideas to life, providing internet access and free digital education to underserved communities. Having a voice to reach out to people is fundamentally important and Digi Challenge for Change is the platform to do so."

"Our idea addresses the need for us to build a strong support system to ensure that our children's voices are heard and to let them know that they are not alone. Digi Challenge for Change is a great opportunity for us to collaborate with various support channels and create this network of support systems to reach out and help our children, especially those who need it most," added Madeleine Yong, Board Member of Protect and Save the Children.

"No words can describe how we feel right now. We're glad that we are selected as one of the three finalists as this recognition draws attention to the plight of the visually impaired community. I would also like to take thank Digi for giving us this chance to turn our dream into a reality and we are eager to move to the next phase and hope to convince the judges why we deserve the grant to further develop our idea," added Stevens Chan, the founder of Dialogue in the Dark.

Among the panel of judges today were Jamaludin Bujang, Chief Executive Officer of MAVCAP, Eddie Razak, Executive Vice President of Social Innovation of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, Roshan Thiran, Chief Executive Officer of Leaderonomics, Dr. Abdul Reezal, Executive Director of Steinbeis Malaysia Foundation and Albern.

In the first phase of DigiCFC, about 50 innovative and inspiring proposals were submitted by established SPOs, out of which five (5) were shortlisted after a rigorous judging process. These five teams were given the opportunity to pitch their proposal to a panel of esteemed judges at Digi's IdeaPitch to move to Phase 2.

This year's programme is part of the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) Social Public-Private Partnership initiative led by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) in collaboration with the Public Private Partnership Unit (UKAS), and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia.

For more information on Digi Challenge for Change, please visit www.digicfc.my