Berita Terkini

When Ms Marini first walked through the doors of Sister Cookies on her first day of the bread making workshop, she did not know what to expect. With no prior knowledge in bread making, Ms Marini was worried that she may not be able to catch up with the other Project Positive participants. But with the guidance of her trainer, Chef Suriani Samad, she now feels confident to bake her own loaves of bread for her family.

Project Positive is a pilot initiative birthed from a Design Thinking process that was done as part of efforts to review and enhance Project JOY, a staff-initiated project for Ramadan that began in 2002.

The main aim of the review is to seek ways of enhancing the existing nature of Project Joy beyond the gifting of food hampers and vouchers. Families are given the opportunity to learn a basic skill set that can be monetised to help increase the household income.

Participants for Project Positive had the option to attend one of the following courses: Bread making, cookie baking, sewing or handyman. 

Participants who successfully completed their courses were celebrated at a graduation ceremony on Sunday, 2nd June 2018. They each received a certificate of participation and new set of Baju Kurung for the family to welcome this year’s Hari Raya.

Another participant, Ms Siti Nurazreena,chose to attend the sewing workshop in order to be able to assist other mothers with clothes alterations. In the beginning, she found it challenging to sew a straight line with the sewing machine but over time, she was able to master the skill.

As for Mr Kamarudin, a participant of the handyman workshop, he always had to call a contractor to assist with drilling works at home. The workshop enabled him to gain confidence in handyman tasks to carry out simple fixes around the house.

Ms Asfiah attended the cookie baking workshop, knowing that the new skills obtained will help her refine her knowledge in baking and enable her to further improve. Leaving her child at home while she attended the course was a big sacrifice for this mother. But with her determination to learn, she was confident that this sacrifice would pay off.

How did these participants feel throughout their journey in Project Positive? Watch the videos to follow the experiences of our project positive participants as they share their thoughts about learning new skills.