Sowing seeds of entrepreneurship among women and youths of poor families

(From left) Nurfarini Daing of myHarapan, Zaharuddin b. Daud of Etiqa Insurance Berhad, Ahmad Rizlan b. Azman of Etiqa Takaful Berhad, Hajah Mariamah Jaafar of YVPWM and Kamaludin officitiating the Seed programme.

While many urbanites get to obtain the luxury of starting their own businesses, the latter and underprivileged community seems to be getting the short end of the stick when it comes to even making it to survive, especially if they live in the city.

According to a Household Income Survey by the Economic Planning Unit, households with urban women-headed households scored a higher sustainability rate of being poor than to the male counterpart.

Women-headed households were also proven to be at the very bottom of the income distribution.

With such statistics in mind, Etiqa proudly presents a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) project – The ‘Socially and Economically Empowered Development’ programme (Seed).

Seed aims to provide equal opportunity for women and youths who come from poor families, while aiding them to start their own businesses and training them to be financially independent.

“The effort for this programme by Etiqa is also a promise leading to the bank’s humanizing brand promise and reflects on the basis of insurance itself, which is helping people,” said Maybank Ageas Holdings chief executive officer Kamaludin Ahmad.

The programme is for women and youths who earn an average income of RM3,000 or less per household.

Divided into three programmes throughout the year, each session will also be conducted for four months.

Participants will undergo structured training and coaching focusing on entreprenuership, marketing and financial management skills.

After completion of this stage, participants will be given options to specialise in areas such as baking, sewing and fashion design.

Such technical terms will be imparted to support those with entrepreneurial goals.

Job-seekers will also be guided and monitored with sharpening relevant office skills training provided in the programme.

“We are confident that a programme as complete as this would interest participants in setting up and running their own business.

“In today’s world, entrepreneurs come from all manner of backgrounds with the opportunity to become successful and benefit their communities,” said Kamaludin Ahmad.

The Etiqa Seed programme is launched in partnership with two non-profit organisations – myHarapan and Yayasan Pendidikan Vokasional Wanita Malaysia (YVPWM).

For details on the programme or know someone who can benefit from Etiqa’s Seed program are invited to call 03-7954 1244 (YVPWM) or 03-7722 1387 (myHarapan).