Good Things

Based in Kalumpang, Selangor, KL Pooch Resort & Rescue is like a holiday home for its furry residents. With a swimming pool, and large outdoor spaces for dogs to explore, KL Pooch offers boarding facilities for dogs, while also functioning as an animal shelter and rescuing dogs who have been abused, injured or abandoned. Shannon Lam and Natalie Ambrose from KL Pooch Resort and Rescue joins us to share more about the work that KL Pooch has been doing for the past 10 years, and how they’ve continued to care and help the dogs in their shelter during the pandemic.

Image source: KL Pooch Resort & Rescue

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We're focussing on GoodKids today, a social enterprise empowering youth using the arts and counseling. As the folks behind the enterprise describe it, the funds raised are used to help youth rediscover themselves, build confidence and develop critical skills to lead an independent and purposeful life. They also focus on self discovery, self expression, critical thinking, decision making, and mental health. We find out more about the work they do and their future plans from Koggelavani Muniandy, the Co-founder of GoodKids Malaysia.

Image source: GoodKids

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Architects of Diversity (AOD), a non-profit that runs unique programmes designed for secondary school students in Malaysia to tackle the hard questions of living in a multicultural society. On this episode of Good Things, Co-Founder of AOD, Jason Wee, joins us to talk about his non-profit and also discuss how we can begin to talk about racism in Malaysia.

Image source: Jason Wee LinkedIn, Architects Of Diversity Malaysia Facebook

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The Pit Stop Community Cafe is a social enterprise working towards solutions for homelessness, urban poverty, and hunger, among others, in our capital city. Since 2016, they’ve been providing both hot meals and job training for people from the homeless and urban poor communities in KL, but like many social enterprises and soup kitchens, the past 15 months have not been easy for them. Yet, they have been soldiering on to continue the work that they do, and to find out more about that and how people can lend a helping hand, we speak to the co-founders of Pit Stop Community Cafe, Joycelyn Lee and Andrea Tan.

Image source: Pit Stop Community Cafe Facebook

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Elise Arya Chen is a passionate human rights advocate who has been working with the refugee community for about three and a half years now. She's currently a coordinator of the Coalition of Burma Ethnics Malaysia (COBEM) and was previously attached to Tenaganita. She joins us on the show today to share about her journey so far, finding her purpose in life and how a seemingly grim and thankless job can be incredibly fulfilling. 

Image source: Elise Arya Chen Facebook 

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With the aim of improving the livelihoods of vulnerable communities - through education and the provision of basic needs - Yayasan Generasi Gemilang (GG) has also launched the KidzREAD Network, which is a platform that wants to bring together like-minded individuals, people groups and organisations to work towards improving English literacy for children in these communities. We find out more from Caryn Ng, who is the Head of Education Service, at Yayasan Generasi Gemilang.

Image source: Generasi Gemilang

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What does it take to ensure accessible healthcare for refugees? How does the stigma from the general public as well as the other social and economic barriers that they face hinder refugees’ access to healthcare here in Malaysia? On this episode of Good Things, we speak to Dr Susheela Balasundaram, Head of the Public Health Unit at UNHCR. Working with the UN agency since 2007, she shares her experience of working with refugees both in Malaysia and abroad, and why it’s important for us to ensure that refugees should not be left behind when it comes to accessing healthcare.

Image source: UNU-IIGH

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For many of us, if we catch a cold or develop a cough, we’ll simply go to our nearest GP to get it checked out. We do it without a second thought on how easy it is for us to access medical care. But for the homeless and urban poor community, medical care is often a need that they cannot afford nor easily access. For this episode of Good Things, we speak to Dr Madhusudhan Shanmugam, the founder of Teddy Mobile Clinic, to find out why he decided to start a mobile clinic, the challenges he faces in ensuring that the homeless and urban poor community receive the healthcare they need, and what keeps him and his team going.

Image source: Teddy Mobile Clinic Facebook 

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Ong Yong Xun was preparing for his SPM examinations in the middle of a pandemic when he got the idea to create a platform to help other students in their preparations. The problem is, he didn't have a clue about coding. So, he spent six months learning the craft on YouTube. That funnily enough, earned him the nickname, Zero and led to the launch of the JomStudy app. This year, Zero was one of the few Malaysians selected to be on Fobes' 30 Under 30 Asia list. On this episode of Good Things, we speak to Zero on his journey creating the JomStudy app, his aspirations and his thoughts on the state of education in Malaysia throughout the pandemic. 

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