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Munirah Halid - Working from the ground up/breaking the hierarchy

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Munirah Halid - Working from the ground up/breaking the hierarchy

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It is often understood that changes, if were to be made would not receive much impact or transformation unless it has been widely accepted in the legislative norm or established in the parliamentary pedestal. While that may be true, it does not render the efforts at the grassroot levels futile. One of the best reflection personally for me is how much empowered we all actually are and how much empowerment (in whatever fields or causes) can be channelled within our capacity without necessarily being at the top. In fact, the undertaking of the current challenge within our capacity and capability and creating a difference therein is in itself the stepping stones and manifestations of empowerment. Visibility is important, and it doesn't operate vertically only, but laterally as well. To be visible and create a difference as an individual is the essence of generating a successful community cause

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1. I think it is a very great reminder from Dr. Raudhah that planning on sustainability is crucial and should always be included in the objectives, because at the end of the day we can't help them forever. I'm very interested to explore more and apply the approach of 'system thinking' in the future
2. Having boundaries, realistic goals, acknowledge our locus control, and practicing good self care are some of the keys to combat compassion fatigue. You are human and your feelings are valid.
3. I find Ms Ashira's sharing very fascinating, and I really resonate on her point that we should be knowledgeable and do thorough research before making our visit. Ask them, ask the people who have been close to them, and never judge them. Have a mindset of co-creating with the beneficiaries, instead of just projecting our bias and values. Sometimes, what we think is best for them might not be beneficial or is not the biggest priority
4. Always reevaluate yourself and think on how to make use of your previledge.

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When organising community work, i found out that how enriching ourselves of cultural knowledge helps in allowing ourselves to manuever through societal and cultural barrier. This helps us to better understand our target community, especially in acknowledging their actual needs and concerns. Therefore, a background check and study on the community we plan to work with greatly helps us to accomplish our goals in the community work.

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one of the most essential elements of community work is not just passion or planning, but self awareness. a lot of community work lacks the internal work that needs to be done, in terms of addressing privilege and empowerment

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When organising community work, make sure we are working towards benefiting the community itself, instead of projecting our own wants and subconscious desires.

Treat the root cause, not the symptoms
Sustainability should be in mind from the planning stage, and ideally an NGO should be working towards a state where the NGO itself is no longer needed, through systemic change, societal or governmental.
If the root cause is beyond reasonable expectation to change in your capacity, spread awareness and train successors.

In volunteer work, or any social work, make sure to maintain boundaries to prevent emotional exhaustion. Figuring out a right balance to maintain sustainable emotional health takes time.

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How to avoid compassion fatique
1. have boundaries
2. locus of control
3. self care (physical & emotional)
4. have realistic expectation when you jump in
5. acknowledge your own emotion and seek support if you need it

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When working with different socioeconomic background, it is important to suspend all judgements, be open, listen more and have deep understanding.

Quoting Ashira's key elements to plan community work:
1. Understand their culture
2. Respect the differences and appreciate the similarities
3. Reconcile the differences. Bring harmony of differences to achieve common goal.

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In education sector, the biggest challenge is most likely to be dealing with the centralized education system and the bureaucracy. Most school leaders are open for ideas and initiatives that can benefit the students. Key success factor is PERSISTENCE!

In humanitarian sector, the challenges come from national level, NGO, and community. Malaysia lacks social legal framework which can pose many unprecedented challenges. NGO depends heavily on funding to execute. Important takeaways when dealing with international organizations is that they are generous when it comes to funding but will expect outcomes & big impacts. Hence, the paperwork should be complete and outcome-based.

To measure an impact of a community work, it is important to set measurable objectives be it qualitative or quantitative.

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How we make the project sustainable

-Train the volunteers so that they are familiar with the processes and systems of the work
-Get engage with the media ( keep reminding people that the issue is very important not only now but also in the future)

- Build relationship with authorities (wider reach and more easier replication)

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It's important that in a work culture:
1) Have humility
2) Avoid personal bias
3) Position ourselves a the partner and to co-create things together

Remarks:
1) Always communicate with the refugees to avoid any misunderstanding
2) Be transparent and show them that we're trying to support them

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1. The things we perceive as harmless can be an offensive gesture in another community. A little background study beforehand can save us from getting off on the wrong foot with the target community.

2.  Cultural differences should be embraced and not be treated as a barrier when engaging with different communities.

3. Being open is key. we should discard any personal bias we have and learn to listen to them about their needs.

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How should we measure the impact of a program?

When running a program, we need to be clear of the objectives. The objectives themselves should be measurable in a quantitative or qualitative manner

Quantitative manner- using numerical data (performance measures, indicators, etc.)

Getting qualitative data is also an alternative for eg questionnaires, interviews, or observation.

We should also get multiple perspective as different people have different perspective of that particular issue. We can establish a contributory relationship to help us understand how our actions fit into a larger strategy implemented by many partners.

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1. Be prepared - research on foreign cultures rather than risk offending others or land in uncomfortable situations.
2. Listen to them - avoid tendencies to assume we know what they need
3. Open to disagreements and differences especially in foreign volunteer work

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1. Starting out - Overcome by persistence to get approvals for great ideas
2. Inter-NGO cooperation can reduce overlap
3. Suspending judgement and creating a positive narrative when dealing with
people and bringing change
4. Local NGOs understand the local community better
5. Outcome - able to measure the effectiveness of your NGO projects

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It is important to have humility when doing community work. Do not judge the decisions of others. First understand what are the goals of the grassroots and align ourselves with them so that we can get the best results for all.

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It's important to align your expectations with the government as well as your beneficiaries. Especially as an outsider, suspend your judgement: It is difficult to truly understand a situation until you're in it!

Listing KPIs and measuring outcomes are particularly crucial when it comes to working with large and established international organisations.
- Quantitative measures: e.g. for nutritional intervention, measure BMI before and after
- Qualitative feedback: interviews with beneficiaries, organisers, and neutral observers

-Ruoh Wen

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Humility and openness is crucial when we come to help a community of a different culture. Need to be aware of our own personal bias of projecting our own personal goals upon others, but focus on what they truly need, seek to understand them.

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Challenges faced:

Barriers to entry - When starting out, it may be difficult to obtain approval or even the attention of the authorities

Red tape

Conservatism and resistance to change (e.g. in technology) among school leaders have surprisingly not been a big problem

Legal status of beneficiaries - Malaysia does not yet have a proper socio-legal framework to govern refugees, asylum seekers, or undocumented persons e.g. compared to the USA

Negative sentiment from the public towards refugees

NGOs do not have enough institutional support and funding

Lack of coordination between NGOs - duplication of effort

Key takeaways:

Persistence is incredibly important

Being able to anticipate challenges and prepare for them

-Ruoh Wen

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As a Malaysian that lives in a multicultural society, cultural knowledge is as integral in bridging the differences between fellow Malaysians as connecting with societies beyond our national borders. Thus, developing the disposition to build rapport with people who are different than us in terms of culture will not only benefit us in communicating with people from different countries, but also help pave the road for the harmonious multicultural society we all envision as Malaysians.

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Understanding the culture of communities that we want to help is an important step to get to know what are their needs. However, we also need to be able to communicate with them effectively so that we do not make the mistake of confusing what we know with the actual reality of things

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When we want to do humanitarian work, we need to understand the community's culture in order to avoid conflict from happening (that will impact us and probably other NGO too). By having a better understanding on the cultural differences, it can help us figure out how we can help them better that can also benefits them. We must work with them and ask them what do they really need instead of giving them things that they dont actually need.

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I totally agree with Ms. Ashira about understanding the cultural intelligence. I have experience volunteering for indigenous people, there are some cultural different that we need to aware before executing the activities there. For us to deliver the initiatives well, we need the right way to communicate and respect that differences otherwise it wouldn't make a big impact on the beneficiaries.

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It takes more than just interest to learn about other people's cultures; we need to have the passion, be open-minded and put in efforts to learn them. All of these are necessary to demonstrate our interest into learning other people's culture, especially towards the people whose culture we're learning. It also helps us to assimilate easier into their said culture group.

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It may not be easy to understand other people's culture, but we have to acknowledge that some people are different. We need to embrace and respect that differences :)

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It is important for us to be aware of the cultural sensitivities that can arise from geographic or demographic differences. Constantly learning new knowledge and unlearning pre-conceived notions of a particular culture helps us to connect better with people of a particular community so that we can work with them more efficiently.

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We need to be wary of how we act and what we say when mixing with other cultures

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It is crucial to have the cultural intelligence for us to be able to understand the background of the people we are communicating with as well as their culture (showing respect to their unique culture). To get along better and to improve relationship.

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To ensure sustainability of social impact, it's important to involve the community in executing the tasks from the beginning.