Ongoing initiatives help B40 women generate income during pandemic

Zaiton says YPKDT collaborated with registered counselors from UTM to provide psychosocial support and guidance for women.

SOME 141 female entrepreneurs in Johor including single mothers have been given assistance in the form of equipment to facilitate their businesses this year.

Johor women, family and community development committee chairman Zaiton Ismail said the Business Equipment Assistance Scheme (Skipp) had helped over 900 women grow their businesses since its inception in 2003.

“The Skipp programme focuses on providing equipment for B40 women and single mothers who own small or home-based businesses.

“The Darul Ta’zim Family Development Foundation (YPKDT) visits applicants’ homes or business premises to learn more about their trade.

“We will interview them before handing over their applications to the Skipp committee for approval,” she said.

She added that ovens, freezers, stoves and sewing machines were among equipment under the programme.

Zaiton was responding to questions from Datuk Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain (BN-Penawar) and Khairuddin A. Rahim (PH–Senggarang) on assistance for single mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

About 300 single mothers and women in the B40 category benefited under another initiative called the Women’s Income-Generating Skills Project (Wings) Online courses 2021, said Zaiton.

“The programme is aimed at helping women improve their skills and generate income from home.

“The Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult for the courses to be done physically.

“So, YPKDT made the courses available online for participants,” she said.

She said the Wings courses, available since 2003, had benefitted over 10,000 women in Johor.

With regard to mental health, Zaiton said YPKDT collaborated with registered counsellors from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to provide psychosocial support and guidance to women.

“This was the first collaboration between YPKDT and UTM in providing moral and psychosocial support.

“To date, three online group counselling sessions have been carried out for the benefit of 30 single mothers,” she said.

Zaiton said there were 11,732 single mothers registered under YPKDT’s Target Group Information System (Smart).

“Of that number, 188 are from the B40 category, earning between RM1,000 and RM4,800 a month while 647 women from the poor and hardcore poor categories take home less than RM1,000 per month.

“The rest of the participants are either from the M40 group, unemployed or have not updated information on their monthly income,” she added.