Community Centre Strategy Set

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation and ERA Consumer Malaysia are receiving funds from the European Union.
It suports a project for the empowerment of Indian women in Malaysia to express and defend their rights and gain
greater self-esteem and control over their own lives and personal and social relationships.

The project also seeks:

Indian men’s participation in the activities of the Community Centres.
Involvement of families and the community as a whole
Involvement of Malays, Chinese, and other members of the local community.
Support of the national dialogue about improving legislative provisions on women’s rights in Malaysia.
Current Status of the Project

Since its launch on 1st of May 2003, the project is well under way. A lot has been achieved in this time: building up of working teams, setting up the basic infrastructure for the conduct of the project, selection of a local project advisor, defining Terms of Reference for conducting a survey to select 5 suitable locations for setting up the Community Centres in the first phase.

The most important activity has been the conduct of the frist survey to select suitable locations for setting up the Community Centres. This activity involved collection of data from secondary sources, meeting with, and gathering support and permission from the local authorities, and the local communities. The response of all persons contacted, especially the local authorities, has been overwhelmingly positive with respect to the project.

The following locations have been short-listed as sites for setting up the Community Centres: Ampang, Dengkil, Kapar, Rimba Jaya, and Slim River. Hulu Selangor has been kept as a backup location.

Next Steps

The next activity is the conduct of community consultatio sessions in the five selected locations. This involves introducting details of the project to the communithy and assessing the specific demand of the community for activities. The sessions will be conducted in the language spoken by the community members so as to facilitate communication.

In addition, Community Centre managers will be recruited from the respective community. Psychological and legal counselors will be short-listedd for the planned counselling sessions in the communities. Purchase of cabin containers and other necessary infrastructure will be carried out. All this will facilitate the inception of the first group of Community Centres on 1st of November 2003.

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