Serving our multicultural community during Ramadan and major religious festivals is a time-honoured tradition at Quest International University (QIU).
2025 is no exception. Our staff volunteers from across faculties and departments evoked the holy fasting month’s spirit of charity, generosity, and compassion by giving back to the community through another meaningful Quest Community Impact (QCI) initiative.
These initiatives naturally extend our ‘leaving no student behind’ philosophy of education, recognising that caring for the society that shapes our students is equally important for future generations.
QIU believes in fostering collective action among community stakeholders. This year, we again partnered with nonprofits to provide the residents of a local children’s home and the homeless around town with iftar and singgah sahur meals, thus amplifying the impact of our Ihya’ Ramadan programme.
This initiative, led by our QCI secretariat, was organised in collaboration with the Perak chapter of the Malaysian Relief Agency, which is a national NGO dedicated to assisting those affected by natural disasters or armed conflicts, both local and abroad. Other partners included Jalinan Kasih Asnaf MRA and MC Plus.
The day-long programme included gotong royong with residents of the children’s home under Yayasan Amanah An-Nur Maisarah. This activity served to foster a sense of togetherness by involving them in meal preparation and later breaking the day’s fast with them at sunset.
Many of the hot meals prepared during the day were later distributed to the homeless in the Ipoh Old Town area. Sahur meals were also distributed to law enforcement personnel in the Tanjung Rambutan area.
Our desire to share the blessings of Ramadan was not limited to food distribution. Swiftly on the heels of this event was held a sumptuous iftar buffet for three children’s homes at our La Place Cafe on campus, complete with musical performances. Earlier this year, our refreshment stall during the Thaipusam festival had drawn thousands of devotees participating in the ritual procession.
QIU’s commitment to community work is embedded in our DNA. It is inspired by our Council Chairman Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay Eswaran’s belief in ‘raising oneself to help mankind’ and the University’s deep sense of social responsibility, best exemplified by our year-round efforts to move the needle on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The target SDGs of this campaign were numbers 1 and 2 – ending poverty and zero hunger, respectively.
As always, we’re immensely proud of our staff for reaching out a helping hand to those around us who need it most. This is the very essence of Ramadan, the very essence of social justice.
