BloomThis and WOMEN: girls Help B40 Women Improve Their Standard of Living





BY: Michelle Liew

The Women and Girls Self-Development Organization (WOMEN: girls) in collaboration with a private company provides employment opportunities for B40 women to ensure they continue to survive in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve living standards.

The job opportunities were implemented through the ‘Jobs for Community’ program to provide skills development training to B40 women through a three -month paid apprenticeship program.

BloomThis Co-Founder and Managing Director, Penny Choo, said the initiative targets women between the ages of 18 and 40 to give them long -term employment opportunities.

She said the program also aims to increase participants’ salaries in the future by opening up opportunities to learn important skills in the flower arrangement industry such as gift and flower handicraft skills as well as logistical and operational aspects.

“This initiative is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) inspired by the situation that erupted during the Movement Control Order (PKP) in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak,” she says as quoted from Berita Harian.

“At that time, we also mobilized internal efforts to provide employment opportunities to the community and small businesses by 2020.

“So, we are called to improve the lives of those who need help. We want to encourage them to achieve better economic and social standards through skills upgrading efforts,” she adds.

BloomThis, the market leader in the online demand -based flower and gift sales industry for the first time announced the launch of its CSR initiative, ‘Jobs for Community’, in conjunction with International Women’s Day.

WOMEN: girls Executive Director, Izza Izelan, said the vision was in line with the desire to become a local brand by collaborating intensively with organizations, individuals, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as

WOMEN: girls to empower the local community.

In this way, it is possible to cultivate capacity and give the target group access to appropriate skills through apprenticeship training.

“We believe this move will enable them to get quality jobs with us or others in the future,” she said.

The collaboration could help raise awareness of this initiative and more target groups could benefit from it.

“For a long time, we at WOMEN: girls have been working to remove barriers and open the eyes of unemployed women to see the options unfold for them.

“We recognize a structured program to build women’s career journeys through guidance and training in the field with key industry leaders needs to be created to support and equip them with skills in specific areas.

“‘Jobs for Community’ can be an opportunity for the apprentices involved to change direction and strengthen a better career path in the future,” he said.

Through this initiative, BloomThis aims to achieve and align their goals in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially Goal One (No Poverty), Goal Five (Gender Equality) and Goal Eight (Fair Work and Economic Growth).

Throughout the three-month program participants will be given practical training that will equip them with the skills needed to get a job in the industry.

The intake period is five different this year, which is from April to September 2022.

The participants involved will receive a monthly basic salary for the duration of the apprenticeship program, in addition to planning to absorb 20 participants as permanent contract employees at the end of the program.