Khazanah founded the Yayasan Hasanah foundation in 2015 to introduce efforts and initiatives that would benefit the local community in the areas of Education, Community Development, Environment, Arts & Public Spaces, and Knowledge.
Envisioning a better Malaysia
Dedicated to the wellbeing of every community in Malaysia, Khazanah’s foundation (Yayasan Hasanah) envisions a country where everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, has access to quality education, healthcare and economic opportunities.
Dato’ Shahira Ahmed Bazari, the foundation’s managing director, talks to New Sarawak Tribune about the foundation’s passion and how they have carried out many initiatives nationwide while also highlighting the ideas, vision, and mission of the foundation as well as the projects that they have spearheaded.
Q: What are the history and objective of Yayasan Hasanah?
A: Yayasan Hasanah started as an independent grant-making foundation on July 1, 2015, with the aim of creating a greater impact that complements Khazanah Nasional’s efforts towards advancing Malaysia as an inclusive and progressive nation.
We focus on helping pressing community, social and environmental issues in Malaysia. To achieve that, we work together with policymakers, civil society organisations, corporations and local communities to enable collective impact for the people and environment.
As empowering people has always been the beating heart of our organisation, since helming the foundation, we have impacted more than 2.4 million Malaysians from all walks of life.
Today, Hasanah can stand strong because of the support from the public-private-people partnerships, social impact organisations, as well as our own Hasanah squad. Our annual expenditure is funded mainly by the returns of Hasanah’s endowment. This has enabled Hasanah to take a long-term view of initiatives and programmes, invest in system improvements and reform as well as provide sustainability to our mission.
Why is the foundation passionate about improving the socioeconomic status of persons in vulnerable communities?
Our vision is to create a sustainable and just society where all individuals have equal opportunities to thrive. It strives to build a society that values diversity, promotes social cohesion, and ensures the wellbeing of all its citizens. It is rooted in our belief in justice-based frameworks and its commitment to advocating for rights, dignity and justice-lensed interventions.
We aim to achieve both our vision and mission through grant making and by building the capacity of social ecosystem players. Our grants impact five specific areas which are ‘Education, Community Development, Environment, Arts & Public Spaces and Knowledge’.
The foundation recognises that vulnerable communities face various challenges and barriers that hinder their social and economic progress due to lack of opportunities. By addressing these issues, Hasanah aims to empower individuals and communities, enabling them to lead better lives and contribute to the overall development of the nation’s vision.
And our mission is to catalyse positive change by empowering communities, nurturing talents, and driving systemic impact. These impact areas are anchored on Hasanah’s core foundation of long-term nation building and built on Hasanah’s commitment to stakeholders in upholding the values of empowerment, trust, integrity, inclusivity, connectedness and authenticity.
At Hasanah, we focus on improving the socio economic conditions of vulnerable communities regardless of ethnicity, religion or socio-economic background. We empower individuals and enable them to take control of their lives to become an agent of positive change. This is in line with the ‘Malaysia Madani’ mandate which aims to move the nation forward with inclusivity, celebrating diversity and empowering individuals. Additionally, we are also committed to implementing sustainable programmes that ensure long-term benefits for the communities we serve.
What are some of the community’s current issues that Hasanah has taken on to address?
Hasanah has been actively addressing several current issues faced by the community, with a focus on empowering the rakyat, particularly the youth, as they are considered the future of the nation. Some of the recent initiatives and programmes undertaken by Hasanah include:
a) Mental Health Fund
As a grantmaking foundation that cares about youth who are struggling with mental health, we recently co-launched the ‘Asian Youth Mental Wellbeing Fund’ with AVPN, the largest network of social investors in Asia during The Hasanah Forum (THF) that was held in June 2023 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Through the ‘USD3 million Asian Youth Mental Wellbeing Fund’, we aim to help organisations address mental health needs among young people locally and around the region.
The pressing urgency to tackle mental wellbeing challenges among youth has led to the creation of the Fund. Mental health is the second largest contributor to years of healthy life lost to disability in Asia, but barriers to treatment persist due to systemic issues, lack of accurate data and monitoring, and funding disparities.
b) Addressing post-pandemic learning loss
When COVID-19 pandemic hit us, it resulted in learning loss in the 3Ms (membaca, menulis dan mengira). Under the Education pillar, Yayasan Hasanah, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, supports the ‘Literacy and Numeracy Rehabilitation Project’ by Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and Wesser Solutions Sdn Bhd that enriches the country’s existing ‘Program Pemulihan Khas’.
While the project integrates digital solutions, qualified but unemployed graduates are appointed as student mentors assisting remedial teachers in classrooms, and university scholars prepare effective teaching modules. Cikgu Nur Naqiah Mahadzir from Sekolah Kebangsaan Jelempok shares that digital gadgets have kept students interested and focused in classes, while reducing incidents of skipping schools.
c) Dapur Digital 2022
In collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, ‘Dapur Digital 2022’, by Pepper Labs Sdn Bhd, is one of the many programmes supported by Hasanah Special Grant under the Community Development pillar. This programme allows entrepreneurs to produce larger amounts of food at a cloud kitchen and to reach corporate clients, thus achieving a better income boost compared to running their business on their own from home. Besides that, Dapur Digital has opened doors to many women who want to start their business at home but lack the necessary skills.
Through this programme, it helps the entrepreneurs produce food in bulk at cloud kitchen as well as meet the corporate customers’ demands. Through this programme, our participants have recorded income growth ranging between 77 per cent and 500 per cent. To illustrate, for some cloud kitchen micro-entrepreneurs, their income skyrocketed to RM10,000 a month from RM500. One such entrepreneur, Rohana Ismail, Chairperson of Kelab Wanita Harmoni in PPR Kerinchi, is glad for the programme and has seen improved earnings. She also enjoyed the team-building sessions where women in the community sit together to brainstorm ideas, discuss menus, learn from mentors and encourage one another.
What are some notable/recent projects in Sarawak, and how have they benefited the local community?
Hasanah has undertaken several initiatives to empower the local community in Sarawak. Among many others, the following are some of the programmes supported by Hasanah across focus areas of Education, Community Development, Arts & Public Spaces, and Environment.
⦁ Education
Over the years, in the focus area of Education, Hasanah has been supporting Chumbaka in its ‘Transformation of Sarawak Rural Primary Schools’ programme, reaching 20 schools in the state and enabling digital technologies and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Hasanah also addresses the importance of mental health and wellbeing among students, and access to mental health services for the youth. In doing so, one the partners Hasanah has been supporting is PINTAR Foundation through the PINTAR Young Minds Programme in Kuching and Miri, benefitting 500 students thus far. Hasanah also has been supporting PUMP 3.0, organised ‘Celik Kesihatan Mental’ workshops, enhancing students’ awareness and equipping them with skills to manage psychological stress. Our unwavering commitment to raising mental health awareness among students illuminates the path towards much-needed support, reignites hope, nurtures their wellbeing, and charts a course toward boundless academic triumphs.
⦁ Community Development
In 2021, our ‘Combat Malnutrition for the Urban B40’ care packs transcended the ordinary realms of food aid, towards food security. Founder Marian Chin from WhatMatters captured the unique essence of local cuisine by canning flavours of beloved Sarawakian culinary masterpieces while contributing to food security in the B40 community. Through this extraordinary endeavour, the care packs of nutritious and traditional canned foods addressed the needs of the urban B40 and provided a source of income for 35 rural farmers. Hasanah also has been supporting an inter-generational project by Social Innovation Movement whereby the youth and the senior citizens in Miri work together to generate income through upcycling waste, amounting to a cumulative increase in income of almost RM115,000.
⦁ Arts & Public Spaces
In 2022, Hasanah proudly championed the ‘Hearth Brought to Light’ food festival, an ode to preserving local culture as the masters of their craft get older. This festival is among the 107 arts showcases magnificently supported by our ‘Arts for All Seasons’ (ArtsFAS) grant programme, a collaboration with the Ministry of Finance. Across the nation, a sum of RM4.15 million was awarded, igniting economic prosperity and safeguarding our cherished arts, heritage, and culture. In ArtsFAS 2022, we were proud to support initiatives in Sabah and Sarawak covering heritage culinary, fine arts, crafts, as well as conservation of Kadazan-Dusun literature, and Hasanah looks forward to supporting more in the states.
For the next five years, the Arts and Public Spaces impact pillar emphasises on the protection and conservation of Malaysia’s heritage textile. In Sarawak, Hasanah collaborates with partners such as Tanoti House and The Brooke Museum towards this mission, supporting their heritage textile conservation initiatives, through RM1.6 million in grants awarded in 2022.
⦁ Environment
This year, Hasanah is supporting (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) UNIMAS in their ‘Empowering Community-Based Plastic Waste Management’ at Kampung Bako, Kuching. The programme aims to reduce plastic waste from going into the landfill by training 400 community members on proper handling and management of plastic waste. An interesting dimension to this programme is a Go-Green barter trade system that allows them to trade their waste for points that can be redeemed for other commodities such as sugar and cooking oil. Hasanah also supported TANOTI Sdn Bhd, a social enterprise in their project for crowd-sewing of reusable baby diapers for distribution to 5,000 beneficiaries in rural communities throughout Sarawak. In doing so, it was expected to eliminate waste of at least 20,000 diapers and diaper packaging entering the landfill per year.
⦁ The Hearth Brought to Light: A Food-Over-Fire Festival
This festival highlighted the fragility of local culture and the urgent need to preserve them, especially as masters of the craft grow older. A pantomime, traditional performing arts edutainment and cooking demonstration over a full-sized live hearth took centre stage at the festival located in Kuching, Sarawak. For two nights, tickets to the food festival were sold out to the public; a hopeful sign in safeguarding our traditions. The festival was one of the 107 arts showcases supported by Hasanah’s ArtsFAS grant programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance in 2022.
⦁ The ‘Plastic Free Community Project’ in Kampung Sting by GSTAM (Green Science and Technology-Association Malaysia)
Surrounded by natural beauty, Kampung Sting’s remote location, however makes waste disposal neither cost nor time efficient, resulting in an open burning. As one of the three villages under the ‘Plastic Free Community Project’, the community has been introduced to waste segregation and the possibility of upcycling plastics to create something new. The project has been successful in reducing plastic waste in the community, and 69 per cent of households no longer participate in open burning of plastic waste.
