Cynthia Mala A/P Paul Dorairaj has bagged Emerging Women Award

Cynthia Mala A/P Paul Dorairaj has bagged Emerging Women Award

• October 01, 2021

I am ever so grateful and truly honored to deliver my speech on such a significant and momentous occasion in my life. It is a huge honor for me to receive this award titled “Women Icon powered by Times Women”. Firstly, I would like to recognize the immense hard work of the other nominees. I was astonished by the achievements made by them, but I must say, I am appreciative that I have been recognized for my accomplishments.

When I got nominated, I battled with various complex projects specifically trying to bring ideas to life within time sensitive deadlines. Not to mention, there were quality standards to uphold. However, with regular and gradual persistence, I managed to overcome these obstacles. Moreover, I am overjoyed that my efforts will bear fruits and enhance the lives of many people. In fact, thinking about how these projects will benefit the community has been the motivation behind my hard work all these years.

I would like to thank my family especially my late father, Paul Dorairaj who instilled many great values in me and was an innate leader. He is the main reason for all my achievements and a true inspiration. Additionally, I would like to thank my friends who constantly gave me moral support during difficult times by lending a listening ear or shoulder to cry on. Next, I would like to thank Asia Pacific University (APU) as this institution gave me the platform to work with a vast variety of individuals who have significantly impacted my work. I am blessed to be surrounded by such learned colleagues and that there is much synergy pertaining to our vision on Social Responsibility projects. Over time, we carried out many events. 

A noteworthy event was a community sustainability project which is a competition that lasts for 2 months. This competition was a collaboration between Soroptimist International Club of Bangsar (SICB) and Soroptimist International Club of Shah Alam (SISA). The objective of this project was for students from colleges or universities around Malaysia to showcase a sustainable project within the timeline stated above. APU had won for 3rd place and 1st place on the second and third year respectively. As a mentor for respective my university, I learned the value of collaboration networking. These young students have much potential and many interesting ideas that are incredibly impactful. The kids of today really are the leaders of tomorrow and it is pertinent we give them the opportunity to prove themselves. 

One of the biggest challenges faced during this project was the cleanup session which involved piles of unwanted rubbish which looked like it may have been breeding snakes. Just to my suspicion one of the homes confirmed it. At this point, the students had made tremendous progress at the site and it would be disadvantages to them to bring the project to a halt. After the incident, I went it every 2 days to pour sulfur around the area and check the site for any snakes. Besides the snake, there were unwanted wild animals around the area. However, once the pile was cleared – a more conducive area was made for activities to be carried out. The students plated herbs and vegetables and fruit plants to generate sustainable income for the center. The children in the home was taught baking which the sold I their school and in the center to generate another source of income. The children now are more confident in operating the oven and gadgets to do their bake sale. The students were taught financial literacy  to help them on their financial planning. As for the social media we helped set up a new social media page as the old social media account was not being accessed to.

On another note, I am who I am because of Soroptimist International Club of Shah Alam (SISA). This club helped nurture me to my full potential and recognized my strengths. As a woman and a mother of two, there is stigmas that have been around for years which places constrains for women to grow to their full potential outside of their home life. However, being a part of an all women club, I was proved otherwise. I first handedly saw many inspiring women leading big corporations whilst attending to their home life. The women in this club believed in me; I have been appointed several roles since my time as a member which includes, becoming the Internal Auditor for two terms, President of SISA from year 2013 to 2015, Treasurer of Soroptimist International Region of Malaysia (SIROM) from 2016 to 2018 and currently I am the Treasurer of SIROM for the new term. During my time as President, I spearheaded a project to donate 3 goats to a small HIV community. Over the years, the goats reproduced 600 off-springs that could be sold to help this community sustain their livelihood. 

In January 2020, the club had decided to collect old laptops and refurbished them to hand out to single mothers in the b40 community around the Klang Valley. These women have been struggling to make ends meet to support their families and could not afford a laptop or desktop when schools switched online. No mother should have to choose between putting a meal on the table and providing education for her children. With these donations, we managed contribute 20 laptops to these families to ensure these kids’ education would not be neglected. The additional laptops were also given to small learning centers located at low-cost flats to be able to reach as many people as possible. As an educator, this project hit close to home; I could not bear thinking of the millions of families that have to sacrifice their children’s’ education due to circumstances out of their control. 

I also devote my time to a non-profit organization named Yayasan Health on World it’s a foundation that deals with Mental, Emotional and Physical wellbeing. I learned the importance of mental health and how it weighs just as much as physical health. As I work several jobs, often I am burnt out. Recently, I have acknowledged the significance of compartmentalizing and segregating my time. I do the finance and admin work and have been in this Foundation for more than a year. The foundation has helped several B40 groups during the Pandemic and held an International Conference. My other work that I have been doing is helping small business in getting subsidies from the government as many of this small business was it hard and therefore, I have helped them secure the subsidies and also do their taxes and pay what is due to the government as I feel we are accountable when we have small business to do our part to the society. With this I have a group of single mothers and students and young adults who very much need to generate an extra source of income therefore I have helped them over the years.