March 2024

WEPs IN ACTION
PRINCI PLE 6

Promote equality through community
initiatives and advocacy

Contents
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Context
Actions
Timeline
Challenges
Results
Recommendations
The Role of WEPs
QuotesCASE STUDY: Thrive Well Sdn Bhd
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR WOMEN TO CREATE BETTER COMMUNITIESLESSONS LEARNED• Acknowledging women's emotional labour in households andaddressing their mental wellbeing as primary caregivers is key
to creating women's economic empowerment and enabling
positive outcomes in the wider community.

• A holistic approach is needed when undertaking
community development initiatives, as areas suchas wellbeing, economic livelihood and social
cohesion overlap.

CONTEXTThe UNICEF and UNFPA ‘Families on the Edge’ study in Oct 20201
and May 20212 reported the serious issue of mental health within
low-income urban families in Malaysia. The study found that one
in five heads of households and one in four female heads ofhouseholds are depressed, and one in four household members
are experiencing new negative behavioural changes, such asincreased tension towards children in the household, a rise intobacco or cigarette use, higher levels of depression symptoms,
and increased family tensions.

1Thrive Well is a social enterprise with a mission to expand
trauma-informed community mental health services toindividuals, communities and organisations, particularly themarginalised and high-needs communities, in a sustainablemanner.
From Thrive Well and their partners’ engagements with the local
communities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (urban areas in
Malaysia), they find that women have been struggling even more

1.

UNICEF Malaysia and UNFPA, Mixed methods longitudinal research on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women and children in lower income families, Issue
2: Status of the households post-MCO, October 2020, Putrajaya, Malaysia: United Nations Children’s Fund, Malaysia and the United Nations Population Fund.

2.

UNICEF Malaysia and UNFPA, Mixed methods longitudinal research on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women and children in lower income families, Issue
4: Two-steps forward, one step back: The new normal for Malaysia’s urban poor, May 2021, Putrajaya, Malaysia: United Nations Children’s Fund, Malaysia and theUnited Nations Population Fund.

Company: Thrive Well Sdn Bhd

since the Covid-19 pandemic in coping with multiple responsibilities such as managing household matters, caring for children and family
members. Some women felt financially compelled to start or expand existing businesses to support their families, but were quickly
overwhelmed mentally and emotionally which did not allow them to run their businesses efficiently.
K.A.M.I. Sembang, an offshoot programme from Thrive Well’s community family programme Keluarga Akrab Mencapai Impian (K.A.M.I)3,provides mothers with basic psychosocial support in processing their experiences and equips them with the necessary skills to face
future challenges. Some forms of psychosocial skills and techniques taught include: relaxation skills using deep breathing, progressive
muscle relaxation and the five senses, exploring what can and cannot be controlled, understanding how behaviours are linked toemotions, and effective communication skills to listen and express oneself.

ACTIONS
Community Well-being Ambassadors, who play the role of peer
supporters, are the key to creating lasting change in low-incomecommunities, and women are often at the heart of communities
with working local knowledge. Thrive Well offers participants
who have finished the six - eight month K.A.M.I Sembang
programme the opportunity to be trained as Community Wellbeing Ambassadors, which equips them with further psychosocial and leadership skills to support their respective communities. The main aim is to create a sustainable impact on the social,emotional and physical wellbeing of their communities throughquarterly well-being days and monthly sharing sessions.
Thrive Well also aims to destigmatize mental health within
low-income communities, as seeking support for mental healthissues is not widely accepted. Women or mothers often bear thebrunt of emotional labour – especially post-pandemic whenthese communities were grappling with the transition - yet they
do not have tools to help them cope. K.A.M.I Sembang gives
them direct access to mental health support for themselves andothers as well as skills to deal with life challenges. Most of theon-ground team members delivering K.A.M.I Sembang areprofessionally trained with a psychology background, andcomprise of clinical psychologists, counselors and Masters andBachelor degree students.

Despite the increasing demand of individual therapy, Thrive
Well’s Managing Director Ellisha Othman recognized that a
preventive approach would work best for larger communities
who do not have the luxury of time or the means for individualtherapy. Because there are many socioeconomic determinants ofmental health, family and community-based approaches in sucha context present the best opportunity to support an individual’smental well-being. Hence, group programmes were proposedwith the idea of mental health professionals working together
with social workers, residents associations, local community
leaders and NGOs to support the mental health of mothers
holistically.
The programme measures improvements in participant
resilience using the Brief Resilience Scale questionnaire4, andgeneral quality of life using the WHOQOL questionnaire5.
Thrive Well also keeps track of the number of participants
graduating from the programme itself and the number ofAmbassadors. Change in knowledge, skills and attitude of themothers are also taken into account.

TIMELINE
2020

2021

2022

Graduation of first basic batch

KAMI Sembang launched

22023

Ambassador Peer Supporters started
co facilitating training for basic batches
and sharing on mental health in their communities

Graduation of first advanced
batch Start of training for
Ambassador Peer Supporters3.

A community development programme that aims to strengthen emotional resilience, build self-advocacy skills and develop healthy communication withinfamilies in underserved B40 (income bracket of less than USD $1000 a month) and marginalised communities. It aims to build replicable intervention
programmes that better support young people and families exposed to adversity through participatory and inclusive approaches.

4.

Smith, B. W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., & Bernard, J. (2008). The brief resilience scale: assessing the ability to bounce back. International
journal of behavioral medicine, 15(3), 194-200. The Malay version is translated by Thrive Well Community Development Team.

5.

World Health Organization. WHOQOL: Measuring Quality of Life: Bahasa_Malay_WHOQOL-BREF. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/tools/whoqol/whoqol-bref

Company: Thrive Well Sdn Bhd

CHALLENGES
Some of the biggest challenges in implementing theprogrammes were community trust, participant engagement
and pandemic-related restrictions.
When going into new communities, Thrive Well realized that
community leaders and members were very wary of neworganisations requesting to conduct programmes. The processof convincing them took multiple visits and meetings, including
informal engagements during festive activities for both sides to
get to know each other and build trust. They needed to see thesincerity and commitment first before allowing anyone to enter
the community. To obtain buy-in from new communities, Thrive
Well also used a participatory approach in designing
programmes which took into account voices of the community
to encourage commitment to the programme as well as theirinvolvement.
As the demographic group mainly comprised mothers, participant attendance presented a challenge due to their numerous
responsibilities, ranging from caregiving to managing their own
businesses. K.A.M.I Sembang often had to compete with morepressing priorities for the women. The team had to ensure close

engagement with participants even beyond formal programme
hours to build genuine rapport and commitment to attending
the programmes. Furthermore, The Thrive Well team will discuss
the proposed dates and times with the participants before theprogramme commences. In cases of prolonged celebrations like
Raya or significant political events, which many women might beinvolved in, the team will reschedule sessions after discussing itwith the participants. The team nurtured relationships with theparticipants by visiting them at their stalls, inquiring about theirfamily members' well-being, and celebrating their achievements—even when the programme was not in progress.
Pandemic-related restrictions also caused challenges in
conducting on-ground activities, which is the ideal format formental health support programmes. Nonetheless, the team dug
deep and was creative and resilient in combining online activities in various formats, conducting phone calls, as well as collaborating with local community leaders to reach women andenable as much benefit as possible during times of restricted
physical interaction.

RESULTS
From 2020 to 2022, K.A.M.I Sembang has completed seven basic
batches (each with 30 participants, totaling 210 participants),
four advanced batches (each with 15 participants, totaling 60participants) and began training their first batch of Community
Well-being Ambassador (four participants). In 2023, theycontinued with three basic batches (each with 30 participants,totaling 90 participants), four advanced batches (each with 15participants, totaling 60 participants) and at least two newCommunity Well-being Ambassador batches (each with fourparticipants, totaling eight participants).
The K.A.M.I. Sembang programme was attended by at least 210
women across six communities from 2020 - 2022, at least half ofwhich reported an increase in their resilience and quality of lifescores post-programme. Apart from that, the overall satisfaction
rate of the programme was consistently above 80 per cent with
programme participants also giving qualitative feedback of how
skills learnt have been applied to their lives.
Most importantly, the programme has made significant strides indestigmatizing mental health. Initially, when Thrive Well

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Company: Thrive Well Sdn Bhd

introduced mental health consultations and therapy sessions to
the participants during their first session, there were no takers,
possibly due to stigma or fear. However, as the rapport between
the Thrive Well team and the participants grew stronger, andtrust developed within the community, some women began
approaching the Thrive Well team personally. They opened up
about their issues and life challenges, eventually opting to enroll
in therapy sessions.
Additionally, Thrive Well encouraged participants to express
their interest in consultation or therapy sessions through preassessment and post-assessment forms. This approach aimed tonormalize the process and increase the likelihood of these
women seeking help. As a result, a total of 30 women from theserved communities have now signed up for mental healthconsultations outside of the programme.
Just in 2022 alone, 120 women successfully graduated from thebasic programme and there are currently 12 Ambassador Peer
Supporters in-training to further support their communities.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Thrive Well recommends other companies undertaking similar community measures to consider:• Start with short introductory sessions so that potential

participants have a teaser of what to expect before they
commit to longer duration programmes. As communities
are often wary of outsiders and what is expected of them,this approach eases them into the process by helping themsee what you have to offer.

• Provide holistic support. Providing other forms of support

such as meals, incentives for behaviour change and attendance, childcare, and transportation if needed can be aneffective means of reducing barriers to attendance andreducing attrition.

• Community involvement in planning. Programmes are

more appealing when potential participants and respected
community members serve on the programme planning andadvisory board. Their knowledge is culturally specific, andcan assist in important decision making pertaining to theprogram. Recruiting facilitators from the previous

participants also adds value to the program as they have abetter understanding of the community’s needs.

• Create simple materials that can be shared digitally.

Create easy-to-understand marketing materials about theprogramme that can also be distributed digitally to a broad
audience in the community.

• Partnerwith
financialserviceprovidersorentrepreneurial NGOs. From Thrive Well’s experience, whilemental health support is the priority, it is obvious that basic
financial needs among the women is something that cannot
not be ignored as it is extrinsically linked to their wellbeing.
Women or mothers sometimes cannot afford to close theirstalls or stop their business to attend sessions. Developing
collaborations or arrangements with other agencies or NGOs
for future programming would support holistic women’s
economic empowerment efforts.

THE ROLE OF WEPs
Signing on to the WEPs in 2022 has made Thrive Well more aware and mindful of specific needs of women participating incommunity programmes, as well as employees of Thrive Well, such as the need to account for potential child care help or time off
flexibility to care for family members. There is an increased sense of understanding that we cannot adopt a one size fits all approachand need to constantly adapt to create a more supportive environment for all to thrive together.

QUOTES
Participant A | Age: 48 years | No. of children: 2“Before this I wasn’t sure whether I was stressed or not when I suddenly felt like crying, felt tired, felt leftout. I thought it was because of my own weak attitude. Apparently those were symptoms that I wasfeeling stressed. Through the program organised by Thrive Well, I can now overcome the problem ofstress. I can channel my stress into something positive. THe important thing is that I can plant the feelingof care and love in myself.”

Participant B | Age: 47 years | No. of children: 3“I used to think a lot, now my blood pressure is stable. I used to always have headaches, now I can solve
the issues. Now that my emotional health is better, my physical health has also improved. I am morefriendly / warm with my children. My children used to now share secrets, now they share and become
friends because I validate their feelings. They support me going for this program because they saw thechanges in me.”4Company: Thrive Well Sdn Bhd

Principle 1

Establish high-level corporate leadershipfor gender equality.

Principle 2

Treat all women and men fairly at work– respectand support human rights and nondiscrimination.

Principle 3

Ensure the health, safety and well-being of
all women and men workers.

Principle 4

Promote education, training and professional
development for women.

Principle 5

Implement enterprise development, supply chain
and marketing practices that empower women.

Principle 6

Promote equality through community initiatives
and advocacy.

Principle 7

Measure and publicly report on progressto achieve gender equality.

#WeEmpowerAsia
weps.org
weps@unwomen.org

Funded by:

Produced by:

Women’s Empowerment
Principles@WEPrinciples

United Nations’ Women’s
Empowerment Principles@UNWomenAsia

In support of:

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European Union, UN Women or the United Nations

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Company:
ThriveTheWell Sdn
BhdShop® Indonesia
CaseStudy:Body

Case Study: GOJEK | 5