Foundation for Community Studies and Development (FOCUSED)

FOCUSED is in contact with over 30 villages under its Orang Asli community development programmes. They have adopted 1 low-cost flats community as their urban community building project. Its programmes include Teens’ Service Centre (serving the young people from 12-18 years old), Teens’ Voice Centre (serving the young people above 18), Single Parents Support Group (in the early stages of identifying and providing services). FOCUSED plans to develop parental and self-help support groups in the community.

It is recognised that the low-cost community is ill equipped to face the rapid progress of urbanisation. The youths are particularly vulnerable to a wide array of social problems such as drug addition, lack of respect for parents and teachers, truancy, gangsterism and poor academic performance. Parents usually are too-stressed to cope with the market-oriented forces of urbanisation which inevitably result in broken family units. The incidence of social disorders such as crime, drug addictions and school dropouts are unusually high.

In its effort to meet the need of the squatter communities in Selayang, FOCUSED are working with schools, providing motivation programmes to the students, networking with the parents of the students and helping to facilitate parent support groups. FOCUSED hopes that with a support system that connects teacher, student, parent, community and the civil society, the squatter community will be better equipped to face the challenges of urbanisation.

FOCUSED also has grass-root community programmes amongst the poorest of the poor, that is the Orang Asli community. Its programmes consist of educational classes, establishing income generating enterprises, micro-financing and building of basic infrastructure.

The vision of FOCUSED is to empower the poor to develop their own marginalised community by using a holistic development of mobilising, training and partnerships. To this end, it works with governmental agencies, NGOs, corporate bodies and members of the public.