But within the safe circle of the “Azalea Initiative” by Akar Umbi Society, a community-led NGO that empowers marginalised communities, a transformation began.
In one powerful session on justice and solidarity, she re-enacted the story she had buried inside. And for the first time, she asked herself: What would justice look like? That question changed everything.
“She was able to talk about the whole situation without anger, and see how to move forward,” Wong Chen Li, Akar Umbi’s Impact Driver, shared with FMT Lifestyle.
“After that, she was elected as the first Pakistani leader in her community. And that was really a breakthrough for her,” Wong added.
Even better, this woman’s healing sparked her sister’s journey too.
This is what Akar Umbi does – growing change, quietly and courageously, from the ground up, among marginalised communities in the Klang Valley that include refugees, minority groups, and the Orang Asli.
So far, the NGO has impacted over 600 people from these marginalised communities.
The idea for Akar Umbi took shape in 2021 through the work of Anderson Selvasegaram and Sarah Teo, founders of Suka Society, a sister NGO that focuses on child protection and education.
“We realised that we cannot sustain that change if we don’t work on the larger marginalisation issue faced by the communities,” said Wong.
So Anderson and Teo set out to create an organisation that would go beyond temporary aid and invest in long-term, community-led solutions by empowering local changemakers.
“They themselves have the expertise of the issues, expertise of the communities’ dynamics,” Wong stressed. “Our approach is: how can we engage the grassroots as changemakers?”
Wong said outsiders, no matter how well-meaning, can’t replace the deep understanding that comes from lived experience.
“We bring our very urban mindset into a community that we don’t know… but the wealth of knowledge will always reside with people who have lived the experience,” Wong explained.
That’s why Akar Umbi never begins a project without a local changemaker ready to lead. “Our asset is people,” Wong emphasised. “They’re the ones who will sustain the impact. Therefore, having that grassroots participation is really crucial. It cannot just be top down. The bottom-up is equally important.”
But lasting change means going deeper. Akar Umbi focuses on social marginalisation – the stereotypes and biases that often drive economic exclusion.
“It’s not just about whether I have access to this job or not,” Wong explained. “But how do we really address the root cause of marginalisation? A lot of it has to do with how society views other groups of people.”
Their flagship programme, the Azalea Initiative, is a year-long leadership journey for refugee women – often sidelined in their communities. The women receive mentorship, skills training, and support to run impact projects.
“We’re not the solution providers,” Wong added. “We equip the people who actually know the community.”
To shift public perceptions, Akar Umbi also runs “Enggang & Pipit”, a community-bridging programme that fosters conversations between marginalised groups and the wider public. Their latest event was on May 4.
One such session connected urban Malaysians with the Orang Asli community. A woman, moved by a Jakun man’s experience of hearing his tribe’s name used as a slur, returned home and told her family, “We can’t use that word anymore.”
For Akar Umbi, that’s the goal: small, personal shifts that spark wider change.
Ultimately, Wong believes that change doesn’t have to start with grand gestures – it begins with each of us, right where we are. “We all have the potential to make life better for people in Malaysia.”
For Wong, hope lies in remembering society’s shared harmony, and building on it, making the country “a place where marginalisation doesn’t really take that much in our lives anymore.”
Find out more about Akar Umbi Society here. Follow Akar Umbi Society on Facebook and Instagram.