Pakyalakhmi believes that helping uplift her community is what she is meant to be doing. — Photo K.S. PAKYALAKSHMI
The kindness of an acquaintance who helped her when she was a student left an indelible mark on K.S Pakyalakshmi and led to her starting a non-governmental organisation to empower women and the underprivileged in her community.
After she lost her father at 16 years old, life was a struggle for Pakyalakshmi, her mother and three sisters. And even though her mother worked hard to make ends meet, it wasn’t easy.
“A family without a father... it was difficult and we faced many challenges,” shares Pakyalakshmi who is from Seberang Jaya, Penang.
When she was in Form Five, her hopes of sitting for her SPM examination seemed to be slipping from her fingers because she couldn’t come up with the RM125 needed to pay her examination fees even though she was among the top students in her school.
She wasn’t the sort to just give up on a dream, though.
“I knew this ‘uncle’ who I used to bump into at the bank when I go to pay bills. He was a nice man and we became friends. I thought I’d ask him to lend me the money. I went looking for him and asked him for a loan. I promised that I’d get a job after my exams and pay him back with my first paycheck.
“He agreed and followed me to school the next day and paid my fees,” she shares.
True to her word, after her exams, 17-year-old Pakyalakshmi got a job at a hotel and with her first paycheck, she went looking for her benefactor to repay his loan.
“He refused to accept the money. Instead, he told me to help other young people who had no money to study, I felt like crying when he said that,” she recalls. “That was the last time I saw him.”
Income-generating skills
Since then, Pakyalakshmi has been paying it forward by helping the less fortunate in her community learn skills so that they can earn a living.
She started Tamarai or Pertubuhan Pembangunan Wanita Tamarai Pulau Pinang, through which she offers skills training to underprivileged individuals, at-risk youth and ex-prisoners in Penang, Kedah and Perak.
“I come from a B40 family and so I know full well what it is like... not to have the opportunities to study and so on. Even as a young student, I wanted to do something to help others in my community but what could I do at 18. Although I couldn’t further my studies after my SPM, I was determined to help others,” she says.
Pakyalakshmi joined several political parties, thinking that it would allow her to help her community.
“I would ask them why we couldn’t do this and that and I was getting frustrated. Then, I decided that instead of waiting for others to start something, why don’t I do it myself,” she said.She started small – teaching a few single mothers how to make jewellery. She also searched for skills-training courses offered by government agencies or NGOs. But she realised she needed a platform through which she could organise the various training programmes.
Within a year, she registered Tamarai as an NGO and introduced more courses for women on floral arrangements, tailoring, hair styling, henna design, digital accessory entrepreneurship, computer literacy and young entrepreneurship.
Tamarai started off with just Pakyalakshmi and her husband Balamurugan Nyanasikamani running things but the organisation has 25 volunteers. It has run 202 programmes for the community in the past decade.
Helping those most in need
As a telephone operator at the police station in Penang, Pakyalakshmi says she made many friends who were like-minded and shared the same desire to uplift the community.
In her job, she also saw many teenagers and single mothers who landed in jail for minor offences. Knowing full well that opportunities for them after they get out of prison would be scarce, she decided to extend her help to them.
“I chose to help the darker side of society - ex-prisoners and their families, ex juveniles, single mothers, school drop outs and so on. I focused on women as I truly believe that women are the backbone of the family and society. If you help one woman, you are helping a family and society,” she says, adding however that some of her skills-training programmes are also open to men and boys.
Courses are offered to those aged between 18 to 50, although exceptions are made for school dropouts aged 16 and above. The young entrepreneurship course is open to children, with her youngest student being nine years old.
“I choose courses on skills that are in demand - there will always be a need for tailors, hairdressers and florists. During the MCO, when things were really tough for many, I had a couple of students who managed to earn about RM5,000 from doing floral arrangements for Mothers Day. So, these are very useful skills,” shares the 39-year-old mother of two.
Although it has been challenging, Pakyalakshmi says that Tamarai has led many to become successful entrepreneurs and many of her “students” have contributed back to the organisation by becoming tutors who are paid for their services.
“I will select some of them and send them for further training so that they can earn extra by becoming trainers,” she says.
Just this year, Tamarai has moved from a rented premises to a three-storied building in Butterworth, Penang which she called the Tamarai one-stop Skills Centre.
“I want the people to come here to learn something. I want it to be family-oriented. The ground floor is a youth centre so the youth in the community can come and play games or learn something. The top two floors are open for single mothers or fathers to come and learn a skill... and if they don’t have anyone to look after their young children, they are welcome to bring them along and we will see to them. Often they don’t come for courses because they can’t leave their young ones alone at home,” she shares.
All about empowerment
By offering skills-training courses for the underprivileged, Pakyalakshmi hopes that she can teach the community to be self-sufficient, and not depend on handouts from the government or charitable organisations.
“My sincere hope is that families stop being dependent on hampers and handouts. Instead, we want to encourage families to have at least one entrepreneur per household so that they can have an alternative source of income. We saw how important this was during the pandemic,” she says.
Pakyalakshmi says she is focusing on skills training because “it is practical and anyone can do it”.
“It does not matter if you are educated or not, anyone can pick up a skill. Nothing is impossible if you are confident and are willing to learn. I believe that we can break the cycle of poverty this way, one (person) at a time,” she shares.
She shares the story of a man who was illiterate but was determined to enroll in the digital entrepreneurship course.
“Because of his determination, I approached the teacher who agreed to give him special attention. He tried to learn and now, he has a business. He also learnt how to make bouquets - on TikTok. He also has a cleaning service business, a small one but it’s better than nothing. These stories inspire me,” she says.
Pakyalakshmi admits that there are moments when she feels defeated - like when she encounters naysayers who doubt what she’s trying to do. However, seeing her students achieve success in their endeavours drives her to push on.
“But when I feel down, it’s not long before I get a call from a student who shares how the courses has helped her and I feel uplifted again.
“This is my destiny. It was my dream to have my own place where I can help a lot of people and I am happy that I have done it. If you ask me to sell something, I can’t do it. But, I can teach you how to sell your wares. I can look for funding and come up with a solid proposal and rock the presentation. So I really think this is what I am meant to be doing,” she says.
To know more: facebook.com/Pertubuhan PembangunanWanitaTamaraiPulauPinang
