Ah Sam (2024)

21/02/2024

Every year, our team undertakes at least 1 to 2 bridge projects, and let’s be real - they’re financially demanding (dompet sakit tau😂) due to the substantial procurement of wood planks to replace damaged cross path sections, depending on the bridge’s length and extent of damage.

This year, a kawan from Kampung Sayap pitched us an innovative idea - using used tires as an alternative to wood planks. While this presents a potential solution, the process is time consuming and labor intensive - from gathering old tires from town, arranging transportation, to cutting them before installing it on the bridge with purlins for support.

However, despite the labor-intensity, our efforts not only restore the bridge to fulfill the community’s needs but also address environmental issues. Without redefining their purpose, all the used tires will end up in landfills. Hence, we're killing two birds with one stone here!

Fingers crossed that this bridge will stick around for at least a century :) Nothing, not even heavy rain or scorching sun, should be able to take it down.

18/07/2023

We learned from the villagers to smile even during difficult times. I hope our efforts are valuable and that we can make a difference in this project. It's hard for me to imagine how over 1,000 villagers have struggled with getting enough gravity water for more than 30 years.

26/06/2023

Big thanks to Tatler Asia for featuring me and Hopes Malaysia! Back when I was still cruising in my Myvi, enduring four-hour drives on bumpy gravel roads each trip all the ways to kampungs, wading through dirty mud and cow dung, I never expected any kind of achievement after seven long years. But hey, it's all credit to the amazing teamwork and partners that Hopes Malaysia has been able to make significant strides forward!

Feel free to check out this link to read about other successful individuals and get inspired: https://lnkd.in/g4Uj8keh

19/06/2023

The past few months have been an absolute whirlwind with tasks from organising taxes, working in projects, and so much more. It's time to get back to work-life balance. Once 5pm rolls around, it's my time to hit the badminton court and let those endorphins flow, helping me release all the built-up stress.

19/06/2023

Our farming workshop in kampung nahaba with Eddy and Rizal from Prudence Foundation. It's another lengthy and meaningful social journey to empower more families to achieve self-sufficiency (diversity of fresh foods) and gain greater household financial improvement independently via sustainable farming.

16/05/2023

Many of you are familiar with my core in community development work, but I wonder how many of you are aware that we also have to dedicate time to researching taxation matters and ensuring compliance with government regulations. These aspects often go unnoticed as they happen behind the scenes, but they are crucial to run an organization.

It's important to recognize that a project isn't just about tangible materials; it also requires a deep understanding of legal requirements to operate an organization effectively.

11/05/2023

This kind of place is where we construct water catchment systems, utilizing trees to capture water and sheds in the middle of the jungle to store and channel it several kilometers downhill, connecting homes and farms.

This water serves their daily needs, including watering crops and also for livestock. Now you understand why we prioritize water so much before anything else.

While urban areas enjoy a reliable water supply from treatment centers, individuals in remote underdeveloped areas encounter different challenges.

14/04/2023

I'm often asked whether I'm a volunteer at Hopes Malaysia or if it's a volunteer-based organization, but the answer is a definitive NO. The truth is community development work is a lengthy and resource-intensive process, and I believe in investing the time and effort to create self-sufficient / sustainable communities. That's why the team at is paid a full-time salary, and we are dedicated to operate community projects from office to project sites.

True to be told, our costs include not only project materials, but also years of our experience and knowledge in conducting sustainable projects through monitoring, coordination, troubleshooting, analysis, and reporting. We believe that sustainability is not just about our projects, but also about ourselves to maintain impactful and efficiency delivery of quality work consistently.

18/03/2023

Thank you The Star Online for featuring Hopes Malaysia in collaboration of our sustainable vermicomposting initiative to improve rural lives sustainably 🥳💪

I’ve always believed that hard work eventually pays off when you believe in it! Rural life was never easy for the rural villagers in Kota Belud, but 30 households have proven that if one puts effort, it directly relates to the amount of gains you’ll make!💪

They now have more than 50% increase in income from farming work after implementing sustainable farming techniques and can now enjoy fresh organic vegetables straight from their farm to table, without the need to use extra expenses to buy vegetables again! 🥳🌱

Read more here: https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2023/03/16/reaping-the-fruits-of-their-smart-labour

www.hopesmalaysia.com

03/02/2023

We never really organize fancy ceremonies to celebrate our milestones in previous years, but rather focusing on creating an environment to encourage everyone to stay humble and be real to present our work.

This marks our first community engagement session with our corporate partner this year, with .hafis from .

This time, unlike usual "gotong royong" or project ex*****on posts, it was more of a relax session. We had a short Q&A session to discuss issues and concerns with the community through two way understanding.

A Sustainable Community always starts with listening, understanding, and coming up with practical solutions with our promising words. This is how we ensure our team and the communities are always able to work beyond expectation throughout these 7 years in our socialpreneur journey.

01/02/2023

Anak Sabah is striving for better sustainable development in the rural sabah

18/01/2023

Being A House Wife Is The Toughest Job, espcially those that needs to work and take care of their child at the same time.

Mostly everyday, tonnes of housework are lined up waiting for me when I'm back. Physically exhausted while having to plan what to do next - an endless cycle.

Majority of the women in our community work also need to care for their big family, while willingly step out of their comfort zones to earn extra income to feed their families.

Its really an inspiration to see how most rural women are willing to go the extra miles for their families. Being a housewife while having to work is definitely not easy.

Salute to all the women and moms out there, you are more inspiring than you think!

Enjoy your dinner :)

11/01/2023

7 years of sweat and tears printed in this shirt. Love it!

01/12/2022

Seed knew that in order to grow, it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, struggle to reach the light - My 7th year in the rural community work from constructing gravity water system to empowering sustainable farming in the rural families.

16/11/2022

It’s always a joy to witness the happy faces of the villagers finally having an unlimited water supply connected to their homes through our gravity water systems. With support from Unilever Careers Malaysia, more village families are able to enjoy unlimited water supply for masak-masak, minum-minum, and more opportunities to expand into sustainable farming for food security.

Special thanks to our CSR partner Malaysia for making this impactful project possible. Together, we are able to expand our sustainable impact to reach more communities in need - tackling the unpredictable future by fulfilling basic life needs and making sustainable living commonplace.

12/10/2022

Meet Roslin, one of Hopes Malaysia rural Kota Belud farmers who is experiencing the harvests of her hard work💪. Roslin has been an enthusiastic and hardworking farmer ever since she joined our initiative this year, hoping to sustainably improve food sufficiency and reduce the expenses spent on vegetables🥬 - with some help from natural vermicomposting.

Roslin had been earning only RM300 as a rubber tapper monthly before joining our farming project, which could barely cover her family’s living costs every month, especially with the rising inflation of basic food. With new essential materials and farming skills and knowledge, she has expanded her farm greatly to sustainably achieve food self-sufficiency!💪

Originally starting with only 4 small beddings, Roslin has managed to grow her farmland, now with a total of 16 beddings for various vegetables. She can now earn an extra RM500 every cycle, from selling off her extra crops after feeding her children. “I never thought that I could earn more than my initial job through farming. I can spend less on vegetables to feed my family and I can even earn some extra income from selling my self grown vegetables,” said Roslin happily.

Through our work, we empower Sabah’s rural community with the means to achieve lasting food security and a sustainable future. This is especially important due to the worsening hardships of poverty in Sabah. Even through these challenging times, we shall continue to strive to end hunger for Sabah’s rural families and community!🙌

www.hopesmalaysia.com

21/09/2022

This year, we have lots of new rural farmers who joined our farming project🌱. Besides having farming workshops, my team and I also spend most of our time visiting each of the rural farmers’ farms to check on their progress and help to upgrade the farms of those who showed and put in extra effort 💪

We’re like the “pengawas” at school, anytime spotcheck to see if they got do their “homework” or not🧐. Not because we “senka (meddlesome)”, but we really hope that every cent we spend on our rural community work can really benefit the rural families practically👨‍👩‍👧‍👦.

It's really meaningful to witness positive impacts made over time when the are spent wisely, be it on our gravity water project or our farming project. Being able to witness a gradual improvement in the lives of rural families’ is what keeps me motivated to work harder and help more families in need💪.

www.hopesmalaysia.com

25/08/2022

Been wondering about Puan Daima’s New Home progress? Here comes the long awaited update! 🙌

Their home is successfully installed with electricity and they've successfully moved in. It’s been an amazing journey to witness the progress of Puan Daima’s home (swipe left to see “Before”). I would say that this is one of the first and most exceptional experiences to execute a home rebuild project to help Puan Daima and her family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

From the day we got to know Puan Daima and her family of 6 had been living in a 100sqft shaky farm shed after their house got burnt down, we knew that we needed to do something to get them out of this situation before it got worse 💪

With their temporary hut removed, Puan Daima has more spacious space to expand her farmland now. She can now farm more varieties of crops and have an improved harvest quantity, with better efficiency in generating income! 💪

www.hopesmlaysia.com

21/08/2022

Imagine how tough of a situation it is to not have a stable water supply for over 10 years💦

The community of 300 at Kampung Tinata Nuluhon has been facing water supply issues for over 10 years, relying on unstable water supply and relatively low water input to survive (please refer to pic no.4 to see their water input from before)💦

I would like to sincerely thank our long-term CSR partner for trusting us in this initiative to help this community to solve their water issue. They finally have a concrete water tank filled with overflowing water, with more than enough water input to support the community of 300 people. From previously only water droplets coming out from water pipes, till now having smooth water flow, it’s been an incredible journey to witness a sustainable change within the community together💪

With an improved water system, they can finally have unlimited water supply for free (air bukit), and greater opportunities to explore other possibilities for better livelihoods🙌

www.hopesmlaysia.com

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18/08/2022

This week, my team and I are joined by 3 of our amazing partners from for site visits at Kota Belud, including Efandi’s farm at Kampung Bokilong👨‍🌾

Efandi is a great example of one of our remote project beneficiaries who participated in our gravity water and sustainable farming project. He was previously a farmer who only grew paddy, barely surviving to cover his family’s needs. After joining our projects, he was able to expand to fish farming, working together with his wife; they now have over 1,000 fishes🐟. He is now able to earn some extra income from selling fishes to cover his family’s needs and even supply fish fry to his neighbours. A successful farmer helping his rural peers! 👨‍🌾

has been an avid supporter in our sustainable rural development projects since 2019. Long-term initiatives, such as gravity water systems and sustainable farming, have made a difference in helping the Sabah rural community to live impactful, sustainable livelihoods💪

Greater change comes from the joining of hands among each other. By working together with as corporate partners, we are committed to to Break the Cycle of Poverty and Hunger in the long-term of the unfortunates, towards sustainable livelihoods 💪

www.hopesmlaysia.com

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14/08/2022

We don't get to choose which family we are born into, but we can choose how we want to live💪

Meet Momy, one of our Kota Belud rural farmers who earns only RM150 each month as a farmer before joining sustainable farming project. With hardly any successful harvest before, it could barely cover her family's needs👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

After joining our project, Momy became more knowledgeable in farming and is able to have a consistent harvest. “I'm really happy that I have more extra fresh harvest to sell now and can save up some money for myself”, said Momy.

After saving up the extra income earned, she was able to fulfill her promise to buy a new badminton racket for her teenage son who loves the sport, but did not have a racket🏸

Even though her bedroom’s roof began to leak in the process of saving up, she still chose to keep her promise instead of repairing the roof.

Momy is a loving mother who always wants the best for her family and she chose to lead a more sustainable life through farming, for a brighter future for her family👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

www.hopesmalaysia.com

03/08/2022

Today, I’m gonna share why candidates failed to get hired.

From my personal experience, it’s either they are unclear about the organisation’s needs or unable to present their “values” to the organisation.

Tips: Imagine you're a businesswoman/businessman, trying to sell a business idea to a company (interviewer), and make their mind thinking: “I MUST have this!”

Take “website and media executive” 💻 as an example, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭?🙌

1) Analyse the organisation’s website “strength and weakness” and attach a simple proposal/summary to your resume to present your “value” to the organisation.

2) Share with the interviewer about the current website condition (eg: weak web functionality or SEO performance).

3) Propose a short-term and long-term plan on how you can help improve web performance and user experience.

4) Share suitable strategies to help tackle the organisation’s current web issue and the expected outcomes.

I hope these tips can help you to make your resumes stand out and leave a strong impression to the interviewer in your future job application.

Since 2016, website has been playing a huge part to help our current / future donors, and partners to verify our organisation's existence and to get more information about our sustainable community development work.

We’re currently looking for a "𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞"💻 (based in 𝐊𝐨𝐭𝐚 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐮) to join our team and make a change in the rural community together.

Do you have basic knowledge in 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝑬-𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝑬𝑶 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 to improve website functionality and traffic? (Fresh graduates are welcome to apply, with programming knowledge is an 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆)

𝐃𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 “𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭” (𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞) 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨!

www.hopesmalaysia.com

31/07/2022

“𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲”

Trust me…𝐫𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 is not always about “𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓” to the rural community, but rather “𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒔” to sustain in the long-term 💪

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 is the first thing we do to truly understand the communities’ needs before committing to any projects. This helps to prevent resources going to waste or not appreciated by the community 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Only through mutual understanding, we are able to analyse their issues efficiently and prioritise what we can do to help tackle their issues. With them being involved in the process, it also indirectly helps them to build a sense of ownership, responsibility, and appreciation in the project 💪

Hence, my team and I will always ensure that our project developmental plan is practical,sustainable, and can truly tackle the communities’ issue in the long run.

𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 is always the core to all of our projects! 🙌

www.hopesmalaysia.com

28/07/2022

Running an NGO is not an easy task.

The first 2 years when was established, my boss had to deal with every single task himself due to financial constraints. From doing administrative work, to budgeting, to handling social media contents and websites, and to arranging site work. These costs are usually not shared publicly. He said that even paying for the DBKK parking fee was a burden to him back then 😕

Sustainable community development project is never a “one-off thing”, unlike voluntary organisations that focus on short term services. Our project takes years to witness a sustainable impact within the rural community 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Charity effectiveness and life-changing impacts are also very important for a sustainable change. Therefore, when budget allows, he employs full time employees to work together to help the underprivileged rural communities more efficiently 💪

That is how we are able to sustain for 6 years and manage to help over 10,000 rural villagers in Kadamaian, Kota Belud to connect over 40km of piping for clean water supply, introduce sustainable farming to over 500 farmers to tackle food security, and rebuild 2 community suspension bridges to benefit the children and surrounding community 💪

www.hopesmalaysia.com

24/07/2022

Let’s be honest, initiating farming projects in the rural communities has never been an easy job for my team and I.

We started from 0 experience, spending most of our time in R&D work to come up with sustainable farming methods that can truly benefit the rural families👨‍👩‍👧‍👦.

I believe there were some misconceptions about our farming projects. Quite a number of people around me tend to visualise that our farming project involves building a fancy greenhouse in the rural villager’s farm, surrounded by nice views😍.

Well, it's not like that at all🚫. Our work does not involve building fancy structures or facilities, but by helping the rural families to have access to the most basic needs to survive sustainably as a priority💪.

We don’t mind overspending on farming materials or organising farming workshops even when there are no sponsors supporting us. What we care the most is to be able to witness the rural families acquire sufficient food intake, better health, and have extra income to sustain themselves💪.

13/07/2022

Check out the contractor of the day👷‍♂️, my boss 🤣

He's busy preparing materials for this coming Sunday's farming workshop at Kampung Kelawat, Kota Belud 🌱🌱

Can see his strong "workaholic" mentality well here, he can’t even sit down properly to eat. You can say this is the life of a , you never stop working. He was literally working on DIY piping work while eating his lunch 🤦‍♀️

09/07/2022

My team and I are happy to have successfully helped over 10,000 rural villagers in Kadamaian, Kota Belud since 2016 to improve their water supply issues …but it doesn't stop there!

This week, I got to experience a heartwarming sight where the villagers at Kampung Tinata worked together for an improved, clean water supply.

They have been facing water supply issue for a decade, due to:
1) NOT having public water access, which forces them to inefficiently collect rainwater for household usage.
2) 30-year-old deteriorated water piping that constantly leaks, which increases water wastage.

This lengthy 8km water piping takes longer to complete, from preparing, arranging, and connecting it together. We won’t stop, because we aim to complete this water project by this July! Once these families have an improved water system, they can have clean unlimited water supply for free (air bukit), and greater opportunities to explore other possibilities for better lives in the future.

I would also like to personally thank our corporate partner , for their constant support in our rural community work since 2019 from water to farming, which has helped Sabah rural community a lot to succeed in this initiative.

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Ah Sam

21/02/2024

18/07/2023

26/06/2023

19/06/2023

19/06/2023

16/05/2023

11/05/2023

14/04/2023

18/03/2023

03/02/2023

01/02/2023

18/01/2023

11/01/2023

01/12/2022

16/11/2022

12/10/2022

21/09/2022

25/08/2022

21/08/2022

18/08/2022

14/08/2022

03/08/2022

31/07/2022

28/07/2022

24/07/2022

13/07/2022

09/07/2022

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