KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 — Malaysian social entrepreneur Anja Juliah Abu Bakar on Thursday received the Commonwealth Points of Light award in recognition of her exceptional voluntarism and service to the community.
The certificate, signed by the late Queen Elizabeth II as the Head of the Commonwealth before her passing, made the award even more special to the social entrepreneur for her service in educating girls in rural communities on mestrual health.
“This award came as an absolute surprise to me. Exactly 10 years ago, I started teaching girls in rural Borneo about menstruation and sponsoring washable sanitary pads to them.
“As a result, the girls did not have to be absent from school and realised education is their pathway to a better life,” she told a press conference after receiving the award from British High Commissioner Charles Hay at his residence here today.
Anja Juliah, through her social enterprise, embarked on a quest to address the issue of absentees among Malaysian girls in rural communities after discovering that thousands of such girls miss an average of 60 days of school a year due to lack of menstrual knowledge.
She said her effort in providing reusable sanitary pads has enabled the rural girls to continue with their studies comfortably besides reducing the number of single-use sanitary pads going to landfills.
Meanwhile, Hay, in commending Anja Julian’s efforts, said she has helped in ensuring girls in rural communities remain in schools and get the basic education they need.
The Commonwealth Points of Light award programme was launched in the United Kingdom in 2018 when the UK chaired the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
Prior to Anja Juliah, four other Malaysians have received the Commonwealth Points of Light award since 2018 – including philanthropist Kuan Chee Heng, who is popularly known as Uncle Kentang.
— Bernama
