What do a music teacher, clinical therapist in the making and a finance graduate have in common? On paper, it may not seem like much but, for the trio behind The Picha Project – Kim Lim, Suzanne Ling and Lee Swee Lin – it was their innate desire to do something to help others that brought them together to start this very social enterprise.
In fact, for Lim, the brains behind The Picha Project, starting her own business was never on the cards – she had seen firsthand the struggles of getting one off the ground as her parents were doing so, and she made up her mind that she would never want to go through that. She went in the complete opposite direction and picked up music, teaching others in her personal capacity. Her skills even landed her a role as a guitarist on the Ola Bola movie score, but her music making has since had to take a backseat, what with the running of The Picha Project taking so much of her time. She doesn’t see that as a setback, though.
From left: Lee Swee Lin, Suzanne Ling and Kim Lim.
THE BUSINESS OF HELPING
“When I was teaching music, my goal was to help others. The Picha Project allows me to help others as well, but in a completely different capacity. You never consider the fact that owning a business can be helpful to others, but we have discovered that this is a whole other avenue for help and change,†Lim offers.
She met Ling and Lee while they were volunteering in a refugee school near their university, and worked together on a fundraising concert to buy musical instruments for the children there. Later on, they realised that quite a number of children were dropping out of school and, upon further inspection, found out that it was because they had to work to put food on the table as their families were struggling financially.
“As refugees, they do not have the luxury of coming out to work and we wanted to do something about it. So, we went back to the most basic need – people need to eat and these refugees can cook. That’s how we decided to start a business out of it,†Ling adds.
Image credit: Joe Kit Yong
The Picha Project was started officially in 2016 and, two years later, they are definitely not slowing down. After word began to spread, more families joined them, either through referrals or from the ladies vetting through a list, provided by the United Nations, of families that have undergone a micro entrepreneurship programme to teach them to cook. They currently work with 10 families from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, constantly making sure their food standards are up to par and selling their food for them whenever orders are placed.
KEEPING THE FAITH
It is, indeed, heartening to see these young ladies still as passionate about this cause today as they were on day one. Lim is 28, while both Lee and Ling are 25. Lee explains that it was not a difficult decision for her to make when it came to leaving her corporate life behind in pursuit of their common goal in helping others lead better ones.
Image credit: Joe Kit Yong
“We saw the problems in front of us and we couldn’t just turn away. Now that we are helping 10 families, we end up supporting around 60 people, but there are still 65 million out there who need help. Just to see the small changes in these families – I’m not Mother Theresa, but just to open doors to people to give them a chance to do what they’re good at – this is what’s fulfilling for me. I don’t do things I don’t believe in, but when I do, I will fight for it,†she stresses.
Ling, who dived headfirst into The Picha Project upon completing her final paper in university, had dreams of pursuing a Masters in clinical psychology, and initially struggled with choosing between furthering her education and being a part of the company.
“I didn’t expect the company to be running so quickly – there was so much progress and I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. Eventually, I learned that it was not a matter of giving up my dream, but that my path has changed – all for the same vision and mission that was to empower the community.
“My parents are very people-oriented and kind, so some of that rubbed off on me as well, but it wasn’t until much later that I decided take real action. When I was 19, a close friend of mine drowned while ticking off an item on her bucket list. That’s when it hit me – a lot of people think they have so much time to do what they want, but the reality is that you can be gone the next day. That triggered me to put things into action, and I told myself that, when that time comes for me, I want to have created an impact around me and have it continue even when I’m gone,†Ling says.
GLOBAL HAND
Now, they have further cause and assistance in furthering their impact on communities on a global scale. Early this year, The Picha Project emerged as champions in the Malaysian edition of The Chivas Venture, an annual competition that offers entrepreneurs the chance to win a share of USD1 million in funding for their world impacting start-ups. Just last month, Lim made her way to Amsterdam for the global finals to give the biggest pitch of her life to date.
For now, the team is focused on carrying out what they were doing before, as well as working on expanding their product line, strengthening the operations system and finding better ways to reach out to customers. Plans are being put in place to come up with a feasible system that can be replicated in other countries, or one that the refugees themselves can carry out if and when they return to their homes. For this month, The Picha Project is offering fusion food for the Hari Raya festivities, and is open to working with corporations on events, corporate gifts, catering and parties.
“We don’t just give them money for their efforts and stop there. It goes as deep as understanding their wellbeing, health issues, family problems and the situation in their home countries. We ensure they are in a good state of mind to cook for the customers, because if they are not well taken care of, the quality of the food will suffer and it will be a neverending vicious cycle. We’re impacting these people not just in terms of their livelihoods, but also their lives,†Lim concludes.
TEXT GRACE LIM
PHOTOGRAPHY ROBIN LIEW
ART DIRECTION PENNY CHEW
LOCATION KOPENHAGEN COFFEE
