Shambala Kidz’s Chairman Datin Yenwei is living proof of her belief that a leadership mentality and leadership skills are the keys to a meaningful and successful future. As a teenager, she was already concerned with social issues and volunteered in an orphanage during weekends to make life better for underprivileged children. Today, she is busy organising fun runs to raise funds for charity.
Datin Yenwei’s determination to teach children to become leaders first started when she observed the children in the orphanage. “I saw them grow up without proper guidance and no purpose or direction in their lives. Later on, some of them didn’t even care that their behaviour may negatively affect their future, despite all my attempts at helping and advising them,” she said with sadness in her voice.
It was then that I realised we must start cultivating a leadership mindset in children when they are still young and teachable; it will be difficult to change their thinking when they are older. Today’s children need to be leaders to survive in an extremely competitive world. With academic qualifications, you can be a worker, but with both academic qualifications and leadership skills, you will become a better worker and a leader. Leaders are people who know their responsibilities, have empathy, and are always willing to lend a helping hand to others. As a boss, I would definitely choose workers who are responsible and ready to cooperate with me and their colleagues to make my business a successDatin Yenwei
On how she initiated Shambala Kidz: “I couldn’t find a suitable franchise, so I designed my own programmes, with the help of specialists in the various disciplines, to create the right environment and opportunities for children to cultivate leadership qualities and skills. We call it the Shambala Kidz Leadership Development Programme (SKLDP), an early childhood education system that combines training in leadership skills. We took two years to develop SKLDP, which has a total of 18 elements, but it was worth all our hard work as we are now able to nurture our students to become the future pillars of society.
“All the coaches in Shambala Kidz are either diploma or degree holders in early childhood care and education. They are well-trained to help each child develop communication skills, presentation skills, planning skills, financial & time management skills, and to execute projects. Our classes are small, one coach to 10 students at the most, so that every child gets individual attention.”
We were truly impressed by the children when we visited the classrooms. The students greeted us politely and continued calmly with their work, undisturbed by our presence. Such poise and confidence at such a young age! Datin Yenwei smiled, “It is because we believe in them. When we show children that we believe in their abilities, they gain confidence and are eager to learn. We also encourage parents to practise that principle. When their parents believe in them, children can succeed in almost anything.”
The spacious 3-storey school was equally impressive. It was bright and squeaky clean, with a CCTV in every room and a security guard on the ground floor. We saw a beautiful hall with a stage for the children’s weekly presentations and dance classes, a mini golf course, a special indoor pool for water play, etc. Datin Yenwei is also determined to keep her students as healthy as possible. Strict measures are taken every day to keep the whole school almost germ-free and there is not a single processed food in the meals menu; everything is made from scratch in their spacious kitchen. Indeed, at Shambala Kidz, every care has been taken to provide the best environment to develop our future leaders!
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