A TAILORING enterprise is giving women from B40 households a lifeline during the movement-control order (MCO) period.

Komuniti Tukang Jahit (KTJ), co-founded by Yap Sue Yii two years ago with five tailors, now comprise 15 tailors from low-income households who need work outside the Hari Raya season.

The B40 are families that earn a household income of RM3,855 and below.

“Everyone knows there’s always a mak cik in their taman (neighbourhood) who tailors clothes for Hari Raya and everyone keeps her a secret because they want their Raya clothes done before everybody else,” Yap told The Malaysian Insight about how she found the women in her team.

“We do products that the B40 women can sew, which were mostly corporate gifts.

“Corporate gifts come in bulk, so we were able to distribute more work to the women,” said KTJ’s 28-year-old CEO, who is also an interactive multimedia designer.

Since the MCO began, Yap has mobilised her team to sew masks instead, knowing that corporate gifts are not a priority at the moment.

“We knew corporate gifts would not be a necessity at this moment, so we decided to make things that people need, such as masks.

“Because people were comparing our masks to medical-grade ones, we made it clear that we were doing this for charity,” Yap said.

“For the poor, homeless and refugees who don’t have anything to cover their face, even a two-ply cotton mask is better than nothing.”

KTJ also partners with civil society bodies to provide other B40 women a chance to earn an income.

It received hundreds of submissions from tailors outside Kuala Lumpur, some even from as far as Sabah and Sarawak.

To date, KTJ has made 100 masks distributed to marginalised communities.

It has also sewed masks with company logos for corporate clients, which are sold at RM8.50 each.

Yap said KTJ’s 15 tailors are able to make RM200-RM300 per week.

KTJ is also in the midst of raising more funds through a crowdfunding initiative by Alliance Bank and Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGic), with a goal of getting RM200,000.

“If we’re able to hit the target, we’ll be able to make 2,000 masks to be passed to our beneficiaries,” Yap said.

Because of the MCO, KTJ is relying on delivery services to send materials to its tailors. It also provides them training online.

It has also ventured into making face shields for healthcare personnel.

One of KJT’s partners, Gerakan Wawasan Malaysia, has linked it to hospitals and handles the crowdfunding, while Yap and her tailors provide the manpower to make the face shields.

“We want our tailors to have a sense of pride that they are contributing to the community and, at the same time, supporting their families.”

The 1,000 face shields KTJ have been distributed to Hospital Putrajaya and public health clinics in Precincts 9, 11, 14 and 18 of the federal administrative capital.

Each tailor was paid RM1 per face shield.

“Our tailors are definitely happy to have a job during this time. Some of them are even willing to work throughout the night to sew masks,” Yap said.

For its next project, KTJ hopes to raise funds to make more masks and face shields by auctioning off its Glam mask, a special edition mask bedazzled with crystals, 3D beads, flowers and lace. – April 30, 2020.