KUALA LUMPUR, April 17, 2021 - Persatuan Wanita PPR Hicom (PERWACOM), in collaboration with Think City Sdn Bhd and community members at PPR Hicom Kampung Baru hosted the Chief Minister of Selangor today on a visit to demonstrate first initiatives the public housing community has taken to improve their lives, which have been made more stressful by the effects of the pandemic. ‘Hari K2K’ was a sharing session to showcase how the K2K (Kita untuk Kita) Selangor programme has begun to enable the PPR Hicom Kampung Baru community to help themselves in improving their quality of life and standard of living in a sustainable way. The Chief Minister of Selangor, Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari was present at the sharing session to witness the achievements of the community to date and to discuss issues and solutions.

K2K Selangor is a pilot programme conceived by Think City Sdn Bhd and funded by the Selangor State government with the aim of improving the quality of life and standards of living within public housing through a facilitated process. The programme takes a holistic approach, working with the community to develop solutions to meet the social, economic and physical aspects (both in terms of resident health as well as physical infrastructure) of public housing renewal.

During the visit, community members showcased activities to mobilise the community, support budding entrepreneurs, and ideas for physical infrastructure improvement.

Past activities involved widening the community’s skillsets in terms of hobbies, sport, performing arts and exercise. Initiatives under the K2K umbrella include K2K Idol, a singing competition with mentoring and judging from top Malaysian performers - with prizes not just for the performers, but their neighbours on the same floor - which generated excitement and led to meeting new people, improved neighbourhood relationships, plus a sense of collective pride and belonging. Meanwhile, the K2K Aktif Bersama initiative - a wellbeing programme with walking groups, badminton for children, health talks and workshops on composting, growing pizza gardens, goal setting and more - created further social cohesion with health benefits.

The K2K Idol and K2K Aktif Bersama initiatives were supported by CITI Foundation. K2K also facilitated a link between community entrepreneurs and MARA that resulted in a much-needed online marketing course. This demonstrated how the K2K programme benefitted the community with links to other initiatives and investment from other parties.

PERWACOM President, Norizan Bt Mohd Nor said that K2K Selangor has had a positive impact on the community.

“In coordinating the various activities, it has been very heartwarming to see the community feeling more empowered, to think bigger and to have a sense of control over their own future. I hope that this will continue to grow, and that by giving our community the tools to create better livelihoods, we will be able to sustain ourselves and forge a better quality of life in the longer term.

“Coming together to achieve our goals collectively has also created a greater sense of belonging, pride and camaraderie, with lifelong friendships made. It is our hope that we will learn to provide such support ourselves,” she said.

Hamdan Abdul Majeed, Managing Director of Think City said that the goal of the K2K Selangor programme is to revitalise public housing and to ensure that the communities living there can build on their own capacities to improve their livelihoods and quality of life.

“Research tells us that 80% of Malaysians now reside in urban areas and over 20% of Klang Valley residents are living in various forms of public housing. Our mission at Think City of making cities more liveable has a direct impact on the urban poor, and this includes the PPR communities.

“This is why, with K2K Selangor, we have piloted the first phase of a comprehensive programme involving community and various sectors that empowers the community to help themselves. While many issues have yet to be resolved, this has the potential for further-reaching impacts compared to the temporary benefits of food aid programmes and other similar subsidies,” Hamdan said.

“However, with the positive outcomes we have seen with the pilot project, we aim to broaden the scope of the programme to include further engagement of on-site facilitators who drive the K2K programme at the PPRs, deepening the relationship with MARA to bring other educational initiatives to the community, expanding talks with the corporate sector to provide fresh, healthy and competitively priced food to the community, and linking other programmes to the community. It is also our aim to scale this initiative nationwide, so that more communities can benefit,” he continued.

The K2K Selangor programme was initiated by Think City in a facilitating and advocacy role, working with the relevant communities and linking other programmes by government departments, civil society and the private sector for the benefit of PPR communities. The impact targets of the programme are to reduce the cost of living, improve standards of living and strengthen the management systems of PPRs. The programme also collects information about the community via multiple channels including the K2K digital application, a crucial component to tailor and target support as well as measure impact.

Hari K2K was a community event led by PERWACOM and supported by Think City, showcasing community achievements within the K2K programme at PPR Hicom Kampung Baru, and the residents’ aspirations for the future.