Lakshwin loves the work he is doing and seeing the social impact of Wow's programmes
LAKSHWIN Murugan reckons it was “the strong women” who raised him that led to his choice of vocation.
Lakshwin is the chief operating officer of Women of Will (Wow), a non-governmental organisation that aims to improve the lives of marginalised and disadvantaged communities by empowering their women.
“I didn’t grow up thinking that I would be a part of an NGO, even though my mother was always busy doing social impact work from as far back as I can remember,” he says.
His mum, Dr Selvamalar Ayadurai, founded Tech Outreach Malaysia, an NGO working with marginalised groups not just in Malaysia but in countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal.
“In fact, it was quite the opposite. She wanted me to study hard, become a professional, and get a good job. But I guess seeing the work she was doing as I was growing up must have made an impression on me.
“Another (influence) was our domestic helper, who has been with us since before I was born. She really took care of me because my mum was really busy.
“I remember her telling me, ‘When you grow up, make sure you do something for women like me’. I was only seven, and I am sure I would have just said ‘yes, sure’, but maybe that too had an impression on me.
“Whatever it was, the strong women who raised me certainly influenced me and made me see the role women had not just in a family unit but in their community. It just makes sense to invest in women,” says Lakshwin, who also spent time in Sri Lanka and Nepal, where he saw how the women developed their communities.
Lakshwin actually did work in the corporate sector, at a local telecommunications company, for a while upon graduating.
“But I felt something was missing. There was this nagging feeling, like a ticker in me, that kept track of what I was doing and made me realise that I wanted to do something that would be of benefit to others,” says the 30-year-old from Petaling Jaya. “So six months into my job, I decided to leave and join Tech Outreach.”
Train, coach, enable
In 2015, Lakshwin and a few other members of Tech Outreach decided to form Wow, a separate NGO that would focus solely on projects involving women in Malaysia.
Headed by Datin Goh Suet Lan, their intent was clear: Help marginalised women start and run successful and sustainable enterprises to achieve financial independence.
“That was back in 2015, and I have been with Wow for eight years now. It has been extremely challenging, mostly because there is little support and funding for us to invest in resources.
“However, it is also extremely rewarding when we see the transformation taking place in the lives of women, their families, and communities.
“When they first come into the programme, the women have very little confidence and are looking for help with their businesses.
“And to see them now, not only running their businesses successfully but also helping others and leading their communities... it makes all our effort worth the while,” says Lakshwin.
Wow, he explains, runs community development programmes for women. The goal is to empower the women and, by extension, their families and communities.
“We work specifically with the PPR (People’s Housing Project) communities in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, although we recently expanded to Kedah and have started an organic farming programme in Sabah too.
“We develop strong relationships with the leaders of the communities and identify women who run small businesses that support their household incomes.
“These are households that earn RM2,500 and below – what we call the B10 in Malaysia.
“And the way we support them is by giving them training, coaching, and capital. We give them the skills and resources they need to grow their business and to ensure it is profitable and sustainable,” he shares.
Following a model of the micro-credit loan system of the Grameen Bank, the programme gives the women RM1,000 to build their businesses: RM600 is a grant, and the remaining RM400 is an interest-free loan that they have to pay back.
“We are working with women who have many challenges, and we know they can’t repay the entire amount. But we also don’t want to encourage a handout mentality.
“The RM400 doesn’t come back to us but goes into a community fund for future programmes for the community,” says Lakshwin.
The women are also given financial literacy training so that they will be able to not just save but also sustain and grow their businesses.
“Financial literacy is a huge component of the programme. The women learn about profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and why they need to separate their family account from their business account.
“They also learn legal requirements in Malaysia and so on,” he says.
Apart from the skills training the women go through, there is also a coaching programme to mentor the women as they start to grow their businesses.
“They have about 12 sessions of coaching where they are shown how to apply the skills they learn to their business.
“We introduced this because we realised early on in the programme that they would need support along the way,” he says.
Changemakers in the community
To ensure sustainability, Wow also identifies leaders among the women and develops their potential further.
“We identify 5-10% of them who are natural leaders and support them with leadership skills so that they become skilled changemakers in their communities.
“We realised that in order for these entrepreneurs to be successful, they needed a support system, and the best support system is other women within their community.
“Many of these changemakers are already playing the role of leaders; they just need the skills to help them become better leaders.
“This is where we can help... by training them, building their confidence, and giving them funding to run more programmes,” he says, adding that in some areas, the leaders have set up sewing centres, community kitchens, IT centres, and youth centres in their communities.
One such leader is Norliza Borhari, 56, who joined Wow’s programme about six years ago. She had a small business selling strawberry plant saplings.
Norliza in her little lush garden at her PPR in Kuala Lumpur. — NORLIZA BORHARI
“The programme has been really beneficial not just to the women but also for our community.
“During the pandemic, we reached out to Wow with the challenges we were facing, and they helped us so much.
“We have learned a lot, and I am now also growing leeks in our mini garden and selling saplings.
“We don’t have much space here at the PPR, but I’ve learned to make the best of what I have,” says Norliza.
“I am also quite busy because, as the leader here, the women come to me for all sorts of issues they face, be it with their business, providing welfare assistance, or any other support.”
The organisation constantly measures its impact to ensure that it is “on the right track”.
“We have a very rigorous impact measurement mechanism that starts with a 65-point survey questionnaire about their business, family, etc which we do at the start of the programme and then 18 months later (which is typically the duration of each programme).
“We compare and gauge the impact based on SDGs (sustainable development goals) 1 (no poverty), 5 (gender equality), 8 (decent work, economic growth), and 11 (sustainable cities and communities).
“We also measure the income and savings of each participant on a monthly basis throughout the 18-month engagement, as well as their knowledge pre- and post-programme,” he says, adding that focus group interviews are also conducted for more qualitative data.
The impact has been good so far. Some 96% of the women have managed to make their businesses sustainable and profitable, with an increase in income between 30% and 88% (with an average of 50-60%).
“This is good because about a third of our participants have moved to the M40 (income above RM5,000) category, which means that their families also benefit, which is one of our main objectives,” he says, adding that Wow has worked with about 10,000 women in various communities to date.
Lakshwin reckons he’s made the right career choice, and his hope – aside from getting more funding for Wow – is that Malaysians rally together for communities in need, not just when times are tough.
“I think we all have a role to play and a responsibility to make our society and country a better place. That means taking the effort to understand what’s going on in our society and country, empathising with other segments of society, and being responsible in our actions and even the words we use. Be understanding, be patient, and be more caring.
“This is something Malaysians are great at because look how we helped each other during Covid-19 and the floods. We must do this all the time,” he says.
For now, Wow intends to continuously fine-tune their model to ensure that it stays relevant and impactful.
“We must make sure we are always doing the ‘right’ work. Of course, we also hope to find long-term funding so we can plan ahead and really invest in long-term programmes for more communities across the country,” he says, adding that the goal is to build a better Malaysia for all.
