The Sarawak Tribune, February 26, 2013
KUCHING: PurpleLily is a non-profit organisation and the signature project of Soroptimist International – Kuching, whose vision is to inspire and empower women to thrive and shine.
In collaboration with PITSA, PurpleLily launched its first workshops in Bahasa Malaysia on Feb 23.
The Communication and Stress Management workshops were 1 1/2 hours each and included information, strategies and interactive activities so the participants were actively learning rather than passively listening.
The 48 participants enjoyed the workshops and also learned some new knowledge and practical tips that they could implement in their daily lives.
Purple Lily has been delivering a wide range of financial literacy and life skills workshops to approximately 600 women since commencing operations in May 2012, with the majority of the workshops in English and/or with translation.
However, PurpleLily is now in a position to reach a wider audience as the resources have been translated into BM and local facilitators have been prepared to facilitate the workshops.
Ginette Collin, the founder and director of PurpleLily was full of praise for her team of volunteer translators: Freda John, Stephanie Phan and Suraya Bujan.
“Due to their hard work, all our PurpleLily courses are now available in BM. This is a pivotal moment for PurpleLily as we have the opportunity to reach new groups of women who can learn and develop skills through our Life Skills and Financial Literacy programmes,” said Ginette.
She also mentioned that she was very proud of Suraya and Nawal, the facilitators on that day, and how they made learning fun and interesting for the participants”.
PurpleLily’s objective that day was to showcase their BM workshops to their target clientele (women who are low income earners) and form new groups. This was achieved, as over 20 participants have signed up for the Financial Club and the Life Skills programme in BM, that will officially start on March 16.
PurpleLily encourages new volunteers to join the organisation. It is also in need of financial support so it can keep growing, expanding and provide opportunities for women to access its workshops.
PurpleLily welcomes any organisation (NGOs or corporate entities) who would like to work with it and help achieve its mission to “support women by providing tools, building skills and creating opportunities to reach their full potential”.
For more information, visit purplelily.org or facebook.com/PurpleLilyOrg or email to ginette.collin@purplelily.org or suraya.bujang@purplelily.org.