The Asli Co. is a social enterprise empowering Orang Asli mothers to earn an income from home producing modern handicrafts and products, so that their children can remain in school.
The Asli Co. is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
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The Asli Co. is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, my name is Jason.
00:00 My name is Sin.
00:01 We are from The Asli Co.
00:03 We are the winner of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023.
00:07 The adage, "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"
00:19 holds true for Suraya Abdullah.
00:21 The 31-year-old went from being a housewife
00:24 to earning a steady income
00:25 by sewing various lifestyle products
00:28 such as eye pillows, tummy pillows and masks.
00:31 Like Suraya, 24-year-old Andik Aziz's life
00:55 has also improved after joining The Asli Co.
00:58 Before I joined The Asli Co.,
01:01 I was a housewife and a full-time mother.
01:05 Since I joined The Asli Co.,
01:07 I have gained a lot of skills in sewing.
01:09 I have gained a lot of skills in sewing.
01:12 Before, I could not afford to buy anything.
01:13 Now, I can afford to buy kitchen utensils.
01:16 The Asli Co. currently offers over 20 products
01:19 and works with over 65 mothers
01:22 from eight Orang Asli villages in Selangor,
01:24 Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang,
01:26 providing them with raw materials,
01:29 equipment and wages.
01:31 The social enterprise was co-founded
01:33 by Lim Sin Hiew and Jason Wee in 2019.
01:38 The duo first met as volunteers
01:40 building houses for Orang Asli communities.
01:43 Through that experience, they found out that many children
01:46 had to drop out of school
01:48 as their parents couldn't afford the expenses.
01:51 And when we found out that
01:52 a lot of children were dropping out of school,
01:54 we thought this is something that
01:56 we needed to help with.
01:59 And so we asked the mums,
02:01 "How much do we need to
02:04 support a child to school every month?"
02:07 So they told us it's around RM100 to RM150
02:10 to buy school supplies,
02:12 school uniforms, provide food and all that.
02:14 So we were like, "Oh, this amount is something
02:17 that we could help with."
02:19 Sin and Jason also wanted to further
02:21 help the community so that the children
02:23 can remain in school.
02:25 How many kids can we actually impact
02:27 if we donate at our own capacity?
02:29 Why not we start a business
02:30 where they can work from home
02:32 and they can earn with dignity
02:34 and stand on their own two feet,
02:36 earn the income with dignity
02:38 and keep the kids in school.
02:39 So that's how we started the business.
02:41 We started with just one product,
02:43 cement pots actually,
02:45 with Kak Anissa and Kak Ayu
02:47 in this kampung itself,
02:49 Kampung Orang Asli Serendah.
02:50 So in 2019, when we were doing this,
02:53 at first it was a side hustle.
02:55 So we both had jobs back then
02:58 and we were doing this on the weekends,
03:01 weeknights and we were spending a lot of time
03:03 to get this project going.
03:05 But it was very encouraging
03:07 when we went to our first bazaar
03:10 and sold out all our products
03:11 because the people really believed in
03:14 helping a community
03:16 and they really loved that the products
03:17 give back to the Orang Asli community.
03:19 And so they bought all our products
03:20 and we thought,
03:21 "Hey, this is something that we could do
03:23 in the long term."
03:26 So then, end of 2019,
03:28 I actually quit my job
03:29 and focused on the Asliko full-time.
03:32 But three months after that,
03:34 it was the pandemic.
03:35 And so we had to quickly
03:38 change our business model
03:39 really, really fast back then.
03:41 So we could not do any physical events
03:44 where we sold our products.
03:46 So we moved quickly to online
03:48 and also switched to products
03:51 that are pandemic-friendly,
03:53 which is the hand sanitizers.
03:55 And also, we also taught the ladies
03:57 how to make fabric face masks.
04:00 And that actually supported them,
04:02 their families and us
04:04 throughout the pandemic.
04:05 And we rode the wave until today.
04:08 During the pandemic,
04:09 a lot of the Orang Asli husbands
04:12 kind of lost their jobs as well.
04:13 So it's because of these two products,
04:15 the sanitizers and the face masks,
04:18 that the women can become the breadwinners
04:20 during the pandemic time.
04:22 So that's why we urged the public
04:24 to actually order from us
04:25 so that we can give more work to the ladies.
04:28 We also hire Orang Asli
04:30 full-time staff in our office.
04:33 And from one staff,
04:34 we are now able to hire
04:37 six Orang Asli youths in our office
04:40 as our HQ staff.
04:41 Moving forward,
04:43 their main concern is consistently
04:44 providing employment opportunities
04:47 for the Orang Asli mothers.
04:49 We wanted this to be a sustainable project.
04:51 We didn't want this to fizzle out
04:53 after one year or two years.
04:55 So, we actually had this in mind
04:58 when we designed all our products
04:59 and also priced them,
05:01 and also paid our ladies
05:03 a very good living wage.
05:05 For business-wise,
05:07 it had to be profitable from day one.
05:09 Otherwise, this would not be sustainable.
05:11 We would burn out,
05:12 the business would burn out and fizzle out.
05:13 As a social enterprise,
05:14 the main challenge that we have
05:16 is to ensure continuous jobs
05:18 for the mothers that we work with.
05:20 Because you never know
05:22 when the next big order is going to come, right?
05:24 But when a big order comes,
05:26 many ladies have a lot of work to do
05:28 for that particular month.
05:29 So, our challenge here is to make sure that
05:31 every month is a great month for the ladies.
05:34 Sin and Jason have also taken another step
05:36 in helping their community with Aja Society,
05:39 a non-governmental organisation
05:42 that provides free tuition to Orang Asli children
05:44 in the villages.
05:46 They currently offer classes in Bahasa Malaysia and English,
05:49 with plans to expand into mathematics and science.
05:53 As for winning the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023,
05:56 Sin said it motivated them
05:58 to assist more of the Orang Asli community.
06:01 The duo also urge individuals and corporations
06:04 to help the community
06:05 by contributing to the improvement of their livelihoods.
06:09 Bye!
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