Incoming President’s Speech

 I am honoured to be given this opportunity to address you as In-coming JEWEL President 2016.

Even though Thanam may be  stepping down as President, she is not going to ride off into the sunset just like that.  Jewel is just going to have a  change of driver as all organizations do eventually.   The noble aims and aspirations that  has guided Jewel this far still remains the compass to direct us into the future.

 Eight years ago, Jewel was starting life as new kid-on –the- block among the NGO communities in Johor  with 6 founding members. The little Jewel caterpillar has been  blessed. It went through a smooth transition in the cocoon ,  strong and capable members  came onboard  and has emerged as a fully formed  butterfly  with beautiful wings to take it to flight. Today,  as members of  Jewel , we stand tall , proud  we have made  a difference through the  sincere community services we have rendered for women and children in need  irrespective of race or religion.

 Jewel’s  slogan   “ Empower the Women, Develop the Nation”  places women as the real architects of society. A woman establishes the family life, builds the home, brings up the children and makes them good citizens. Her strength in totality contributes in the making of an ideal family, ideal society and an ideal state.When we focus on empowering women to lead full and productive lives , children and families will prosper ,  “a double dividend” benefitting both the women and children.

Therefore, Jewel places emphasis on assistance in the  four core categories  of  Women’s Rights, Child Rights , Raising Awareness and Advocacy Assistance  in formulating our programmes and approaches to provide assistance to  them. Jewel will look at opportunities to work on  strategic partnerships and collaborations with other NGOs, corporations  and agencies with common aims. That way, we can ride on the synergistic effect of collaboration and be a stronger force to influence  social changes for the benefit of the women and children.

Jewel thanks all of you  for your assistance , both financial and in kind that have helped us carry out our programmes in the past and look forward to your continued support moving forward into 2016. Thank you very much.

Woo Sow Pheng

President (2016)