Shyamala, as she is known, lost her elder boy who was just barely four years old when he fell from their high-rise flat in 2001.
Ten years after the tragedy, her youngest child died in his sleep at age five.
“After my younger son passed away, I became very depressed. I struggled to cope with the loss,” she recalled.
The turning point came when she joined the Khadijah Artisans Mentoring Programme (KAMP 2.0), which equipped her with the skills to turn her long-time hobby into a business.
“I had learnt crochet when I was 13, so I began thinking about turning it into a business,” she said when met after the KAMP 2.0 Second Cohort (Perak Edition) graduation ceremony yesterday.
KAMP 2.0 is organised by Khadijah International Waqf (L) Foundation (KIWF) in a strategic partnership with the Perak Women’s Development Office and sponsoring partner CIMB Foundation.
In the early days before joining KAMP 2.0, Shymala faced difficulties in her attempts to secure booths at various events to sell her products.
She eventually secured a booth at BazarNita at UTC Perak, where she learnt about the mentoring programme.
The programme taught her business skills, including proper packaging, product presentation and finding suitable marketplaces for her creations, said Shyamala, 50, who has a daughter who lives abroad.
With more opportunities to focus on her craft and grow her business, she said she is now busier and feels more positive about life.
In fact, she could now earn more than RM2,000 a month.
Among her products are crocheted tumbler covers, priced at RM45 without a tumbler and RM55 with one, as well as crochet bags priced at RM55.
With her earnings improving, she is now looking forward to buying a new car after driving a Proton Iswara for the past 15 years.
The programme has also helped cancer survivor Ramlah Ahmad Rozali, 55, improve her income from making traditional tekat bags, where she initially earned less than RM1,000 a month but now makes more, depending on the event she participates in.
“As a cancer survivor, crafting has become a form of therapy that brings me happiness and strength to keep going,” she said.
Full-time songket bag crafter Noor Anisa Ahmad, 34, said she previously marketed her products through social media without properly calculating production costs.
“I used to sell each bag for about RM180, but now the price is above RM200 after learning the techniques,” she said.
Former visual arts teacher Hamidah Suratman, 63, who makes batik art kits, said she was grateful for the opportunity to develop her craft into an exclusive product.
She hopes to open a craft centre to showcase batik and weaving, as well as conduct classes for those interested in learning the skills.
KIWF chairman Rohani Mohd Shahir said about 15 participants took part in the eight-month programme, which began in March.
She said it targeted underprivileged individuals with crafting backgrounds who needed guidance in developing their businesses and finding suitable marketplaces for their products.
Also present was Perak Women’s Development Office director S. Kavaramma.
