Inspired and upskilled by her time on the Team programme, Naqibah’s environmental projects have focused on themes from urban biodiversity to forest conservation.
As a volunteer co-ordinator for a riverside restoration project along Malaysia’s Subang River, Naqibah played a critical role guiding and leading tree-planting volunteers. She is now drawing on this experience to create and progress a new environmental project, working with indigenous community leaders.
Although a keen environmentalist, Naqibah (29) had little practical experience in this field before joining the Team programme, and her shyness made it hard for her to even voice her ideas in public, let alone progress them. She was also struggling to find her first job.
‘Before I joined the Team programme, I had submitted many job applications in related fields,’ Naqibah recalls. ‘Sadly, I did not receive any calls from those applications.’
Today, having secured a trainee role with a technical services company, Naqibah pursues her ongoing conservation initiatives in her free time. In August 2025, she won the King’s Trust Sustainability Award for Asia.
Boosting skills
Team – delivered in Malaysia by our partner Selangor Youth Community (SAY) – is a full-time intensive personal development programme for young people who are not in education, employment or training. The nine-week programme combines hands-on activities with group projects and work experience placements, all geared towards building core skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving and leadership.
Naqibah found the programme’s focus on communication skills particularly useful, enabling her to contribute more confidently in a wide range of scenarios, from small group discussions to large public presentations.
‘This programme has taught me to be more vocal and express my ideas, especially during group discussions,’ Naqibah explains, ‘I am a shy person and have a low level of confidence. One of the components of the programme, which is the public speaking course with instructors from SAY, has helped heal my fear of facing a large audience.’
From theory to practice
When it came to the work experience part of the programme, Naqibah proactively sought a placement with a forestry conservation centre and set about putting her newfound skills into practice.
Allocated to an urban biodiversity recovery project, Naqibah supported a team of volunteers as they sought to plant 1,450 native trees and plants along the riverbank. She drew on the communication skills she had learned to engage with and manage the volunteers, and on her newfound practical forestry skills to monitor and quality check their replanting efforts.
‘We were working to restore the river area with native plants, creating a healthy habitat for wildlife while supporting the ecological balance that benefits both nature and humans,’ she explains.
Pursuing protection
Since completing the Team programme, Naqibah has been keen to channel her passion and apply her learning to make an even greater impact. As a volunteer, she is now co-developing environmental training content with an organisation that supports indigenous communities to claim their rights and improve their access to services.
Indigenous people living on their ancestral forest lands have a unique role to play in forestry conservation efforts. By empowering community leaders with information around replanting approaches, and by raising awareness about endangered animals and plants, Naqibah aims to support them in this critical role.