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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