Koperasi Alam Hijau Perak Berhad (KOHIJAU) was honoured by Junior Chamber International Malaysia (JCIM) in collaboration with United Nation Sustainable Development Goal with two awards: The Best under the Goal # 13 – Climate Change category and the Best of the Best Award 2018.
Held for the second year by JCIM, the prestigious event was aimed to reward Malaysian companies and organisations, civil societies and NGOs for their efforts to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
KOHIJAU’s project entitled “Social Business – From Trash to Cash: A case study on Jelapang Tambahan” caught the attention of the 5-member panel of judges headed by Professor Dato’ Dr Denison Jeyasooria, Co-Chairman of the Malaysian Civil Society Organisations Alliance and Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnic Research, UKM.
Associate Professor Dr Richard Ng, Chairman of KOHIJAU received the awards from Stefan Priensner, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Malaysia and UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, at the JCIM SDA 2018 award ceremony held recently in Petaling Jaya. KOHIJAU beat 38 other finalists from among the established organisations and NGOs.
Dr Richard said, “This is the mother of all awards that we have been waiting for after more than three years educating the public on recycling and reward them for their efforts. It really came as a surprise to all of us as we are such a small NGO but with passionate volunteers.”
Prior to this KOHIJAU has helped four other communities to win their respective award. These included the Premier Award under the Best Innovative Project category in helping the Jelapang Tambahan communities to earn supplement income which was won by Rukun Tetangga Jelapang recently.
Last year KOHIJAU helped the Slim Village to obtain third placing in the national Premier Village award for cleanliness. KOHIJAU too played a part in helping SMK Raja Perempuan Ipoh to emerge as the national champion in the Toyota Eco environment project. In March, KOHIJAU helped the Selama Police District to become the national champion in recycling innovation for using the KOHIJAU recycling system.
Dr Richard added, “The big win is the first of its kind for an NGO from Perak. We are definitely very proud of this achievement, more so by beating other bigger corporations and established NGOs. We hope the win will spur more NGOs to embark on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.”
