LOCAL NGO Dignity for Children Foundation, which has been providing education and care to underprivileged children for the past 20 years, recently launched its latest social transformation enterprise, bake X dignity, at Sentul Boulevard in Kuala Lumpur.
The baking school combines academic learning with technical skills through practical hands-on sessions, making education more holistic and relevant.
Students at bake X dignity will produce baked goods that will initially be sold through Dignity’s other social enterprises and, eventually, to external vendors.
Funds from the sale of the baked goods will be ploughed back to Dignity to fund the education of more children.
The project was made possible with the help of local conglomerate PPB Group Bhd and its subsidiary, FFM Bhd, which set up the baking studio with commercial baking equipment, and provided initial training to the young apprentices.
At the launch on Aug 30, Dignity co-founder Reverend Elisha Satvinder said: “Baking, in many ways, resembles life’s journey.
The whole learning process of mixing, baking, testing and getting burnt is empowering.
“It teaches the students the importance of creativity, failure and triumph. At the same time, it equips them with a life skill to earn a living and to live a dignified life.”
Also present were Dignity’s co-founder Petrina Satvinder, chairman James Ling and vice chairman Jackson Ho Yeong Fan; PPB corporate affairs head & group chief sustainability officer Koh Mei Lee, FFM group chief risk officer Alyssa Yip, and FFM
Marketing technical sales manager (flour) Gabriel Fong.
Koh said: “bake X dignity provides an avenue for the marginalised and urban poor with the means for personal transformation and community building.”
She added that PPB is pleased to be a part of a worthwhile project that invests in the lives of youth and gives back to the community in a meaningful way.
Koh said this is very much in line with PPB’s youth education and development programme under the group’s community investment strategy.
FFM’s Yip said they hope their support for this endeavour will help the children discover their potential beyond the academics and provide them with skills which will last them a lifetime.
In addition to bake X dignity, Dignity also runs a hair salon called cut X dignity; a café, eat X dignity, where students learn about hospitality; a sewing and design outfit known as sew X dignity; an art space called art X dignity; and an urban garden, grow X dignity.
For more, visit the Dignity for Children Foundation website.
