Trustees visit to Malaysia

Recently Martin, See-See and I (Bella) spent a week in Kuala Lumpur to get an idea of how we might expand the work of the Trust. These meetings were also attended by our new administrator, Hilary, Debbie Nonis and Tjeannie Yeoh ( a past and present President of the Assunta Alumni).

During the week we met with charities and NGOs such as MyReaders, YWCA, MySkills, The Lost Food Project and AWAM to see how we might work in partnership with these organisations both inside and outside the classroom. These meetings were all very promising and we have many exciting ideas about how we can better help our HVT girls. 

We also had meetings at both the primary and secondary schools at Assunta which gave us the opportunity to speak with the teachers and girls and gain a better insight into what the girls need and what they are enjoying. From these meetings we found that the extra tuition was a great success and we will be looking at how we can continue to offer this to the girls. As part of this we will be looking at how we can help with transportation, food and continuing to find passionate tutors who inspire the girls. We will also focus on encouraging the girls to participate in sports. At the same time, we hope to work alongside the Alumni to address issues such as period poverty and female empowerment.

On the final day of the trip we organised an open day at the Assunta secondary school, mostly attended by the Assunta alumni and some of Hari’s friends and family, to discuss our future plans. The meeting ended with people volunteering to help with the various areas of need that had come up over the week and we were all so encouraged by everyone’s enthusiasm. It was a lovely way to end the week and we are very excited to get started!