Social Entrepreneurs: Unsung Heroes Of The Covid-19 Pandemic
Hello! Welcome to all new and existing subscribers. Head’s Up is back again with another coverage of AM Rainforum’s series on social enterprises with inputs from authorities and founders in the field.
Present during the fourth discussion by AM Rainforum, Social Entrepreneurs: Unsung Heroes Of The Covid-19 Pandemic were Shahnas Oli Mohamed, Managing Director of Natural Wellness Sdn Bhd, Kelly Chung, Chief Operating Officer of Doctor2U, Zarina Ismail Tom, Chief Impact Officer of Drop & Wash and GoJobMy.
The session was moderated by host Kamarul Bahrin Haron with a special appearance by Rining Peter Paris.
Commenting on the situation at present, Natural Wellness’ MD, Shahnas Mohamed highlighted that messaging in regards to the pandemic should have been made simpler and easier for communities beyond the privileged to have gotten a better understanding of.
“I think its like a science lesson, when you are teaching Osmosis to kids, it has to be broken down into a simpler language. I think the same applies here.
“The initial campaign went quite well in highlighting the importance of maintaining social distance and mask wearing however in trying to get people to understand the situation at large. That could have been better,” she says.
Referring to her own efforts with her staff, Shahnas educated them on the situation through a multi-faceted approach.
“Their emotional and physical well-being is my topmost priority and so I had to make sure they were equipped with the right tools to be safe. It was not enough for me to just tell them to be safe, I needed to make sure they were,” she shares.
By providing her staff with sufficient protection, Shahnas found others around them including customers pivoting to do the same. Staff who were ill were not allowed to enter office premises but was advised to go to the hospital immediately to do a swab test.
Zarina Tom of Drop & Wash on the other hand says it is important for the government to go down to the grassroot levels to better understand the situation.
Through the Drop & Wash branches located all the way to Titiwangsa and KL, Zarina says her connections with community leaders helped her immensely to set up food aid.
What surprised her during her efforts to help were that more than just the B40 communities had reached out. Members of the M40 and T20 who had fall out of employment during the pandemic came to seek for food aid as well.
“More than 1,000 applied for the food aid. This shows that the grassroots want to be heard that the aid from BPN was not enough,
“There are also Malaysians who did not receive the BPN aid and some of these PPR flats have bad internet connection making their situation more severe,” Zarina says.
The 1,000 beneficiaries in touch with Zarina include transgenders, single mothers, youth at risk and refugees.
“Our social mission is to hire the marginalised communities and this is also part of the education we want to create for the society at large. We want to show them that some parts of the Malaysian society have no other alternatives.”
Kelly Chung of Doctor2U have also highlighted the deepening inequalities created by the pandemic.
“The poor was the worst hit and not all of them can afford the swab tests as well,” she says.
“We need to make sure all of them have access to the tests and awareness on the importance of getting tested,” she added.
Doctor2U, which is part of BP Healthcare runs CSR campaigns targeting the disabled and elderly, offering eligible members either 50% off on tests or free testing.
She has also urged for companies to carry out weekly testing for office employees before they start work and to be more stern in making sure those who do not comply are not allowed back into the office premises.
She also encourages more people to opt for the PCR tests for better accuracies.
“We also need to expose the more vulnerable part of society to come forth for testing,” she comments.