December 15, 2009 – Nine months ago Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam Berhad (BIBD) launched the Wish Campaign with one purpose – to foster the culture of savings in Brunei.

Bruneians who have shown their will to save despite personal difficulties were selected to receive Wish Awards as an extra push toward achieving their aspirations.

Ten deserving awardees from the month of November officially received their wish sponsorships at the Eighth Wish Awards Presentation, yesterday at Rizqun Coffeehouse, The Mall.

"On hand to present the Wish Awards to the ten awardees was BIBD’s Chief Financial Officer Hajah Noraini binti Hj Sulaiman"

One of this month’s awardees wished to start a women's magazine to feature success stories of female achievers.

"Women in Brunei Darussalam are now gaining unprecedented momentum in every aspect," Zureena Abdullah, November Wish Awardee, said.

"[The publication] is essential not only to inspire other ladies in the country but to showcase Brunei's social developments," she added.

Through the magazine she aims to strengthen positive values such as family and religious values, communal responsibilities and marital issues.

Other Wish Awardees had similar goals. There were displays of family and religious values, where some Wish Awardees wished to bring their family on a Haj, and acknowledgement of communal responsibilities, where they wished to alleviate poverty.

"Wanting to help families and individuals suffering from poverty, Amalina binti Abdullah recently started a team of concerned Brunei youths called the Sounds of Hope (SOH). One of the ways SOH tries to help is by organising a charity concert to raise funds for the financially-needy. The funds will help to improve the families' daily living conditions"

With the Wish Award, SOH can work towards organising charity drives to raise funds and to raise awareness about the issue of poverty among the Bruneians.

Only one more batch of Wish Awardees will be selected before the BIBD Wish Campaign ends. The top awardees from each month, as well as the quarterly awardees will be considered as finalists for the Grand Award.

To be entered in the final leg of the Wish Campaign, all wish stories must reach BIBD by December 31, 2009, 12pm. The December wish awardees and the third quarterly awardee will be revealed in January next year, completing the nine finalists for the Grand Award.

The public will have a hand in selecting the Grand Awardee, with their votes making up 60 per cent of the finalists’ scores. Public voting will be done through the official Wish Campaign website and details will be released in early February.

Through the Wish Campaign, BIBD intends to help people confront the challenges they face and shape their saving habits. This campaign aspires to cultivate a culture of saving among Bruneians in a sustainable manner by encouraging account holders to increase savings every month.

BIBD also wishes to inspire philanthropic spirit through this campaign by inviting the better-off among us to embrace a wish. Potential benefactors can choose to fulfil any of the shortlisted Wish-Makers who are not sponsored by BIBD through the Wish Campaign website.

Every BND 500 increment in the CASA account entitles the account holder to submit one Wish Story. However, CASA account holders need to maintain a minimum of BND 2,000 throughout the campaign to qualify.