Unseen Faces, Unheard Voices

Murni Bte Liga of Kampung Tering, an idyllic village in the outskirts of Kuala Pilah, has a burning desire. She is passionate about improving access to quality education for her community. She has often raised her concerns about quality education for Orang Asli children in meetings with authorities or civil society organizations. One of the issues that she finds problematic is the high attrition among Orang Asli children at primary and secondary school levels. In order to address the issue at her village, she decided to set up a functioning library which could be used by the children. Women from the village organizing the reading material for the library She noted the interest of mothers' in the village who want their children to improve their English language skills. She expressed her interest in running workshops on a monthly basis for her community. The workshops would focus on improving the language skills of the children who participate.  Essay writing activities ...

Background I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a useful workshop organized by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The workshop was entitled 'Women Mentoring Development Programme' was attended by over 40 women from various fields: civil society, small and medium level entrepreneurs, training and education.  The training was conducted in English by two master trainers who have had experience in mentoring women entrepreneurs. They presented a comprehensive workshop structure which included personal mastery, skills mastery and process mastery. We started with discovering our basic personality attributes to understand our prominent characteristics. We were introduced to a local developed personality assessment tool the LEONARD Personality Inventory. It was quite interesting to discover one's strength and shortcomings based on the analysis.  I am going to highlight some of the elements of the worksh...

Temuan community from 3 villages (Kg. Tekir, Kg. Tering and Gebok) Land is integral to the identity of the Orang Asli community in Peninsular Malaysia. The increase in land grabs at the expense of the Orang Asli rights has culminated in the community resisting through court cases, blockades and demonstrations. This video clearly describes the predicament of Orang Asli and land ownership as elaborated by Tijah Yak Chopil of Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Semenanjung Malaysia (JKOASM).  Empower's experience of conducting leadership programs for Orang Asli women has been very insightful. The initial engagement started in 2013, when a fledgling focus group discussion was conduct among 10 women leaders from Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Pahang, Perak and Johor. To date, Empower has managed to train 50 women with leadership potential from various villages in Peninsular Malaysia.  Land Mapping Workshop in partnership with JOAS in June 2016 Thus far the modul...

Lydia of Kampung Gebok She is a young mother of three children who attended Empower's Orang Asli women's leadership training in 2013. It was her first experience attending a training made up of entirely women from various other villages in Peninsular Malaysia. She belongs to the Temuan tribe and daughter of a village head.  Though, her father has passed on, his daughter has begun to take on a major role in decision-making at the community level. When she is not busy with attending to the needs of her community, Lydia harvests fruits from her lush orchard which is blessed with 'petai' trees over 100 years old.  Encroachment - Mining  Lydia's village came under serious danger due to the interests of a mining company which started operating in the periphery of their village. What was clear, the corporation wanted parts of the village which was covered with dense forest and orchards of the community. The community  depended on the resources...