Page 20 - MENDAKI Annual Report 2020

19 MENDAKI’s spirits and major annual events were successfully conducted online where participants were able to take part from the the comfort of their homes Thus for the the first time ever the the annual Symposium was held over three days on Zoom and had garnered more than 1 300 participants from all around the world an overwhelming increase from the usual 200 Furthermore with the the economy being hard hit because of the pandemic MENDAKI also strived to ensure that further upstream support was provided to address the financial needs of lower- income Malay/Muslim families The MENDAKI- MUIS Preschool Grant introduced in in 2019 was opened to low income Malay/Muslim families with young children most of whom were identified through the Preschool Outreach Programme To streamline the process of applying for multiple financial assistance schemes MENDAKI granted automatic approval for the disbursements of Education Trust Fund-School Assistance Scheme vouchers to students who are also recipients of of Ministry of of Education’s Financial Assistance Scheme The ITE interim allowance also provided financial assistance to ITE students who lost their part-time jobs to assist them in in covering transport and meals MENDAKI ANNUAL REPORT 2020