Of charity and enterprise

Persatuan Kebajikan Darul Najjah, headed by Puan Aminah Mat impressed me with their empowered attitude and proactive initiatives. Events such as the one held last Saturday demonstrated their hard work and creativity in roping the involvement of both the authority and community in their works. As Puan Aminah mentioned to me earlier, they hold this Open Day once a year not so much as to raise funds, but more of to raise awareness. During Raya Qurban last year, they organized a qurban drive, where 6 cows were slaughtered and processed in the premise. The meat was distributed to various orphanages and charity homes in the Klang Valley. This year they are aiming for 10 cows.

Puan Aminah also informed me that they plan to register Batik An-Najjah as an enterprise, so that they could market their handicrafts better. Their batik products can be used as home decoration, corporate gifts, personal gifts etc. “We also don’t like to ask for money from people outright all the time. If there’s something we can do ourselves, we want to do it,” said Puan Aminah. Their official website had been launched last Saturday. I had suggested that they put up Batik An-Najjah online soonest possible so that the products can be accessed farther. They can also open up a sales booth in office buildings. Anyone interested to help organize a booth day for them can call Puan Aminah at O12-2O56167.

I learnt of another brilliant enterprise in one of the emails last week from the Ummiku Sayang mailing list, of an enterprise called mangkuktingkat.com. Under the Yayasan Pembangunan Nur Hikmah, a group of mothers got organised and started to offer this excellent service of lunch and/or dinner subscription, delivered straight to your home or office. At RM4.50 for rice, one meat dish (chicken/fish/beef) and one vege dish, plus RM1.50 for delivery, making the total RM6 per home-cooked meal – it’s absolutely a good bargain! (I do wonder whether the RM1.50 is sufficient to cover the delivery cost, especially in this era of extortionally high fuel price, but I guess it’s okay if they deliver a sizable number of orders around the same area).

What I found most refreshing about this enterprise is that they have chosen to use the mangkuk tingkat as the container rather than the easier option of polistyrene foam. Not only that is it environmentally friendly and keeps food warm, it also helped to create a unique experience. Even more interesting, now they are looking at the supply part of the chain, where they plan to procure the raw materials in bulk via vendor system (so that can get better deals), and also buy from homegrown vegetables (so that can help single mothers, poors etc who grow vegetables). They currently deliver to Bukit Beruntung, Selayang, Gombak, Keramat, Ampang, Pandan, Cheras, Kajang, Seri Kembangan, Dengkil, Kelana Jaya, Shah Alam dan Klang, but they’ll start delivering to several locations in Penang, Johor Bahru, Melaka dan Negeri Sembilan in August.