Charity from the Heart

Ever since we started Ladang Sari International Sdn Bhd, we have always wanted to give back to a deserving, marginalised local community.

Initially, through a local church group, we managed to identify a deserving student. Despite his family background, he was doing very well in high school. We sponsored him monthly for about 2 years, looking forward that he entered into pre-university and local university. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, he decided not to further his studies. Our hopes were dashed.

Thus, we moved on to identify others whom we can help. Our soft spot has always been on education, thus, we wanted to identify individuals or community that is doing something on education. We strongly believe that education is THE key to betterment.  The past does not define a person, the present and actions taken to have a better future, does define a person.

Then we chanced upon Dignity, an education centre for the underpriviledged in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. Dignity has been around for more than 10 years, set up by Rev. Elisha Satvinder and his wife Petrina. After their return from overseas in the late 1990s, they discovered so many children especially in the Sentul area, who could not read and write. With limited resources, the couple just started doing whatever they could do, to help the community in the area.

With founder, Rev (middle) and Ngan (extreme right)

Dignity runs a school, for children from 3 years up to 16 years old. The students comprise of Malaysians, and also children of refugees, mainly from Myanmar. They provide simple daily breakfast for the children (since most of them do not have breakfast at home) before the children starts their day.

To help the children have better life skills, Dignity set up Eat x Dignity (café), Sew x Dignity (tailoring shop) and Cut x Dignity (haircut shop). Students will have practical training, serving the general public at these shops and profits go back to Dignity.

Having visited Dignity a few times and also interacted with the students, we personally feel that the students there are more equipped to thrive in the working world compared to students from ‘comfortable’ families. Students from Dignity are taught essential life skills and mindset to always be creative with the limited resources available, whereas students from outside, most often than not, rely on allowances from families for their livelihood.

Since we take part in events so often, we thought that we could involve Dignity further. We proposed to Sew x Dignity to sew bags for us, so that we can put our Rhymba Hills tea in there, and sell to the visitors. For each bag that we sell, we would donate RM10 back to Dignity. Our intention was to create awareness for the public about the good work that Dignity is doing.

Cikgu Zam, the teacher at Sew x Dignity, sewing our bags

We decided to get hands on too

 

Proudly posing with the finished product

 

Dignity loved the idea and they proceeded to sew the bags for us. We felt happy that we could contribute not only supporting them for the bags, but also spread the word about this amazing educational organisation!

We hope that in the coming years, we at Ladang Sari International can support and give more to Dignity, when our business grows to the next level. After all, charity begins at home.