An all-women trio from the Cambridge A Level Preparatory (PREPCAL) programme raced against the clock to win third prize at the second installation of the Malaysia Climate Action Week, organised by the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (BMCC) recently. The exciting five-day national event featured organisations and individuals taking active steps towards climate action reflecting this year’s theme, A.C.T Now! Adapt, Collaborate, Transcend. BMCC also led a contest calling Malaysian students to produce a video raising awareness on the innovative ways to combat climate change and the positive impact it will bring to the environment and society via the Youth Action Video competition.
Goh Kai Yi, Lim Qian You and Lee Hana were given four days to submit their entry and were elated to receive news that their video was in the running for the grand prize. “We were shocked and happy to learn we were shortlisted, as we never thought we would make it that far,” said Kai Yi. “We spent almost three or four days preparing the video entry for the competition and even editing the video a few hours before we had to go up on stage.”
The adrenaline of the competition did not stop there, however, “We were under a lot of pressure, and we couldn’t help but notice the scale of the ballroom and the number of successful people we would be presenting our videos to when we got to the stage,” Qian You recalled. The final leg of the competition was held at Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, where the three finalists were required to share a five-minute speech on their action video in front of a panel of judges, as well as public voting by the conference attendees.
Taking part in such a large competition was their first encounter after graduating high school, making the feat even sweeter for them. The experience left an impact on them where Hana’s parting words were, “The adage remains true: nothing is impossible. Never give up, even if the deadline is around the corner, don’t give up because it’s not over. We never know what the result will be and there’s always a possibility it will work out better than any of us anticipated.”
