Community Centres Activities Planned

A project for the empowerment of Indian women in Malaysia, jointly funded by the European Union (EU) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), is underway since 1st of May, 2003.

The project will be implemented by FNF along with ERA Consumers. The main target group of the project is Indian women, because although they are most affected by discrimination, related intolerance and violence; they also have the greatest potential capacity to facilitate overall change in the community. These centers aim to promote inter- cultural and inter-racial interactions as well. The project envisages establishing 10 Community Centers in selected sites in West Malaysia with a high proportion of Indian population.

Activities planned for the Community Centers are:

Counseling including therapy sessions and legal counseling. Each Centre will recruit professional counselors who will provide weekly psychological counseling and legal advisory services for Indian women and their communities.
Awareness Programs
Community Building - games and cultural activities
Self-help programs
Inter-community activities
Employment opportunities
Recruitment and training of volunteers
Publicity - PR activities - newsletters
Empowerment The need for a liberal strategy

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Johannesburg has recently published an article by the Cheif Executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations John Kane-Berman. He finds that empowerment through affirmative action may actually hamper growth and thus employment and income opportunities. He calls for a liberal strategy that enables the poor to participate in the economy and become both contributors to, and stakeholders in, the national productive effort. The state then has a fourfold duty:

Protect freedom and provide security
Combat inflation
Provide education and basic health care
Outlaw restrictive and anti-competitive practices

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