During the 2024 YouthMADE Festival, 10 teams across six countries received a YouthMADE Festival Amplify Grant, a $500 stipend sponsored by Ciena to help students expand and amplify their projects. Among the awardees are a group of students at Keningau Vocational College in Sabah, Malaysia. They created First 2 Fix, a social enterprise to repair dilapidated homes in their community. In this story, third-year student Nur Qamariah Hesmeddy shares how the team has furthered their project since receiving the Amplify Grant in May 2024.
First 2 Fix is a social enterprise run by construction technology students Nur Qamariah Hasmeddy, Ara Billa Biton, Mellyvonny Marius, Ahmad Fahmi Ali Hassan, Charles John, and myself. We live in the rural area of Sabah, a Malaysian island state. We use our skills and access to resources to refurbish and repair dilapidated or poorly-equipped houses in the most cost-effective manner.
We focus on critical repairs that require immediate attention. We aim to do this at minimal cost and with effective, long-lasting results in preventing further damages and keeping the occupants safe. This includes fortifying windows and doors to prevent breaking and entering, fixing ceilings to keep the homes protected from weather occurrences, and installing toilets. First 2 Fix allows the team to meet the needs of these households for safety, health, sanitation, and even privacy.
We collaborate with our school, Keningau Vocational College, and the staff and teachers help to monitor our progress, offer feedback and insights, and manage their transport and logistics.
The team gathered for a quick briefing at the school prior to the restoration work.
We came up with the idea for this project when one of our teachers requested our help in refurbishing her new home. It occurred to us that we can use our skills to help people in our community who need assistance with home restoration and refurbishment as well as other repairs, in the most cost-efficient way, better catering to the low-income families in this district.
Upon discussing this idea with our classmates, we formed a team and made a poster to promote our service. We initially didn’t get the responses we desired. We realized we needed to first build our reputation in order to convince our potential clients. That’s when we decided to apply for the YouthMADE Festival Amplify Grant, where we outlined our services using terminology from the construction field: “first fix” and “second fix.” It was from this that we came up with the name First 2 Fix.
Once our project was officially announced as one of the recipients of the grant, we knew that this project would be a resounding success. We canvassed the local villages and identified a wooden stilt house that needed critical repair. The occupants of the home accepted our offer for help. With the help of our teachers, we crowdfunded to reach the amount needed to do a targeted repair based on the damage assessment that we conducted during our first visit. We mobilized our entire class to do a one-day restoration and repair work, particularly on the porch and the kitchen of the house. This was done with the approval of the occupants after a series of discussions with the family as well as a consultation session with our teachers. Our teachers supervised us throughout the repair process.
The students removed the decrepit wooden floor at the kitchen and cleared the trash beneath it.
We also published a research paper on the damage and condition assessment that we performed at this house prior to the repair and restoration work. The article was written and published in English in the International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research in September 2024.
The students restored the decaying porch and reinforced it to be safer with new timber.
In the future, we plan to offer our services to construction companies to act as site supervisors who monitor progress and the quality of work done by their workers. This will enable us to play an important part in helping to minimize the risk of faulty structures that do not adhere to the safety standards, which can put people in danger.
People can support our project by donating to our cause and by helping us locate houses that require critical repair. We hope to sustain this project financially so that it can be a continuous service to the community. We also hope it can become a full-fledged social enterprise.
A student helping to remove flood debris accumulated underneath the house.
