Dr Azrinah Rahman

Galleries

Starting Point

“…I mentioned to you my background is not permanent yet but now I've been working on this since 2014, actively more on the deprivation poverty. Not specifically on women but when I become the ASEAN commissioner for women then I start to look to women issues, to relate what my current involvement into women. My organization is called Bantu services. The reason it’s an enterprise, so it's a social enterprise… It started, I told you that when my late mother passed away, she looked after a few, not many, and then when I told you just now, when they came to the house they said nobody looked after them like my mother did, so it touched me and I started to do it. And then it became like, I have around 40 over families recorded under us, but only around now 20 actively that I keep in touch every day. So not specifically women but I’m more towards children. Because the reason why is if you want to change, make change in the…country, you have to go through children, right? …Because you had to educate from the young people...
“So Bantu service actually…in the beginning, …worked with one guy from Zimbabwe Doctor, now he's a PhD doctor. He did his PhD in UBD, and also with Fa’iz, his friend. So he was doing a PhD on poverty in Brunei… So, he worked with me as an

organization that deals with deprivation. So we come up with deprivation metrics… So, from there we have the tools.”

Peace Journey 

“This one, when I was involved in this, we went to the houses and then my daughter, I encouraged her. We have food drive every month. And then, in my house, we pack the things, we buy from Hua Ho and send to the houses, especially Kampung Ayer.
Banyakkan? So, once a month. And then, we saw the situation there, how then, they what and then, you know, I even have a WhatsApp group with them. Until today, I'm connected with some of them. And then, when we saw that there are other conditions that they live in, and even (on land) they live in one room. 50 people live in the house. So one family lives in the lounge. One family lives upstairs, like that. But then I'm concerned about the children, the girls. Right? And also the wife. So, the girls [sleeps] with the brothers. You know, in Islam when you're 13 years old, you should separate, right? So, this triggers many issues.
“So that's why, when this house is available, some of the children that we know, we kind of ask them to stay here so that we can provide for them. I thought at that time that… to solve the problem is to give them a place. A table, a bed, you know, school, to improve their condition. I thought that by giving them this, they will study and get the result, but not really haha. You know? Not everyone, interested in studying. But, nevertheless, everyone has their own special skill, not necessarily to study... So, Alhamdulillah. That's my initiative for the children, girls. Yeah… But, you know, every Wednesday we meet here and we talk about them. Everybody was expecting AAA. When the result was F, they were shocked. Maybe because there was no role model. It is important for the children to have a role model…
“So, that’s how I help the girls lah.. Initially. So from there, you know, but now, I give it a rest because we want to review and most of my team is also old already, wanting to look after their (grandchildren). So I had to create a new team.”

Success Stories 

“Maybe I did, we made an effort because, after this time, I thought we have to break the cycle… You know the first kid, 15 years ago, (now already a) lawyer … So that's, I think, one way to overcome this problem. At least the children are educated, but not all educated, you can force them to have education... But that’s why I had the proposal for the country to have an asrama (dormitory)... And a lot of people from the asrama became successful… So in the asrama, you can groom them to whatever. If they're good at sports, they can be sportsmen. So that's our proposal, but it didn’t take off yet because…it's a big thing.”