Madam Da was a local akok seller. Akok is a famous traditional food in Kelantan, Malaysia, eaten as snack or dessert. It is made with flour, sugar, eggs, and coconut milk. Monthly income was less than USD200 and was struggling to support the family. Having little knowledge in business accounting and often shy away from engaging with external parties, sales have been limited confining to walk-in customers and repeating ones without promotion strategies. Production was often compromised by unattended workers. Madam Murni in Bachok owned a bakery hut and was talented in baking cakes, cookies, and muffins. Located in an isolated town, customer pool was within the neighbourhood and income earned was never suffice to escape poverty. SEED visited both Madam Da and Madam Murni. SEED participants worked tirelessly, examined challenges facing them and through proper diagnosis and analysis, enterprise plans were produced. Proposed ideas were accepted by agencies who recognised business potentials and financial assistance and training courses were offered upright. The rests are history. They enjoyed increased sales and improved store outlook, higher enterprise visibilities, thanks to the SEED outcomes and their perseverance. Transformed villagers continue to prosper; transformed participants continue to empathize; transformed executors continue to believe in imparting socially responsible learning. Together SEED brings hopes, materializes dreams through universities which were in the past labelled as ivory towers by those engaged in grassroots development work since most have noticed the seemingly detached conduct of researches. It is time to be redefined and be relevant.

Throughout the years, the University receives requests from SEED alumni who wish to return and serve. Some SEED participants voluntarily served as our facilitators without requesting for incentives. UMK is heartened to be supported by people who are willing to walk the extra miles. Executors in the ASEAN universities who continue to sustain and embrace the program progress well in their academic career because they learn the essence of being contextual through SEED; students who are empowered and transformed leaders are now entrepreneurs, volunteers and enterprising individuals in the corporate sector. Constant visits to SEED village are always welcome by the community even though securing time, support and financial resources remains a challenge. The most surprising key takeaways are witnessing participants of the program getting transformed without them knowing. Academic staffs aim to deliver transformation effects onto students’ learning as iterated in programme objectives. Nonetheless, while journeying this process, they too are transformed of consciousness because case studies in hand are real for SEED village is the social laboratory for all; no one solution fits it all and multiple challenges surface. The contextual teaching turns them into responsible educators. Students are told to transform the mindset of villagers before they can help; they too are transformed because in the process of seeking solutions, they thrive for creativity and empathize. These skills are important given the current world which is losing its fight against poverty and where underdevelopment prevailed in regions facing economic crisis resulted from irresponsible management

Having implemented eight SEED programs, UMK focuses on results documentation and is in the midst of collating impacts brought about by the program, onto different stakeholders through measureable indicators. To further convince and secure endless support from multiple stakeholders including top management, faculty members and community, empirical evidence must be presented and made understood. Future plans include establishing a research centre and having dedicated teams focusing on developmental work which include documenting outcomes, securing grants, capacity building, to ensure heightened success through structured governance and monitoring mechanisms.