Bandar Seri Begawan - Following the success of the first of its kind BIBD Charity Expedition for ALAF yesterday, Javed Ahmad, the Managing Director of BIBD hopes that the event will also help individuals in the local community to realise that they too can help the less fortunate by providing guidance and support.

Through the initiative, Mr Javed Ahmad said charity begins at home and then after home is the community.

"Help not only comes through financial aid but also can be guidance, support or mentoring. This, in my view is far more important than the financial aspect," he said.

Touching about the turnout for the charity event, he said, "It's a fantastic turn out. We had more than 5,000 people registered for the charity expedition. There were around 400 cyclists while the remaining number were from the other categories.

"It was fantastic and fun. We were not speeding and were cycling at a very relaxed pace," he said

"We want to do this every year. We want to create awareness and we hope that the general population would continue to support us to work together to make education possible for everyone especially underprivileged students," he said.

"There are less fortunate students who can't afford books, transportation or stationery. Through this initiative, we want to provide support to them directly."

For the next few days, he said that they would get information on the total amount that they have raised.

"I think the amount will be fairly substantial. We are also looking at contribution from other means where we can provide support for education on a continuous basis," he said.