PETALING JAYA, June 25 — Single mother Isham Romli was once a shy and reticent woman, struggling with the challenges of raising her three young children after her husband died of a heart attack in 2007.
Today, she is cheerful and confident, exuding a positive aura and serving as a beacon of inspiration to the women living in the PPR (People’s Housing Project) and other low-cost housing schemes.
Isham, 60, runs a sewing centre at PPR Lembah Subang here, where she resides, together with 10 women residents who accept orders for sewing and making all kinds of clothing and handicrafts. They each earn an average of RM1,000 a month from the venture which they started in April 2020.
These women owe their transformation and success stories to a non-governmental organisation called Women of Will (WOW), which was formed in 2016 to equip disadvantaged women in Malaysia with the skills and knowledge to run sustainable businesses through a microcredit financing model. WOW works in collaboration with Yayasan Hasanah and the Ministry of Finance.
“WOW changed my life … from someone who knew nothing, I was given training on entrepreneurship and taught how to start a business step by step. I also attended their sewing classes … and even went on to gain enough confidence for public speaking,” Isham told Bernama.
She said after her husband’s death, she became the sole breadwinner and earned a livelihood by selling nasi lemak and doing all kinds of work.
“I had no skills whatsoever then and my income was uncertain,” said Isham. She not only has a stable income now but has also been entrusted with leading the Empowered Women Leaders Association (PPWB), founded by WOW to further empower single mothers and other women in PPR communities.
For the record, WOW and the PPR Lembah Subang women were involved in preparing and distributing food packets to the residents in the area after the movement control order was imposed in 2020 to stem the spread of Covid-19.
Isham said PPWB currently comprises 23 WOW community leaders, including those from 10 PPR in the Klang Valley and Kedah.
“Our goal is to advocate effective solutions to the challenges faced by low-income communities,” she said.
Meanwhile, WOW president Datin Wira Goh Suet Lan said so far over 10,000 disadvantaged women living in PPR and low-cost housing schemes have benefited from the organisation’s various empowerment initiatives including entrepreneurship development and community business programmes, and community projects and organic farms.
Goh said in the early stages, WOW found it challenging to organise programmes within the PPR and low-cost housing communities as the residents were reluctant to cooperate with them.
“Our community development officers took months to meet with them to understand their needs and discuss how to engage them in our programmes,” she said.
She said WOW aims to transform the economic status of PPR women, particularly single mothers and those with special-needs children or those earning low incomes and with large families to care for.
— Bernama
