Women supporting women in action
KOTA KINABALU: Lean In Malaysia Sabah, a new Lean in Circle in Kota Kinabalu, hosted an Open Day at Regus Suria Sabah, on March 2.
Its founder, Hanaa Wong Abdullah together with Regus Area Manager, Michelle de la Harpe decided to organise an Open Day to increase the awareness of the benefits of Lean In Circles and the support these groups can give to women in Kota Kinabalu for building selfconfidence, for sharing life and work experiences to help each other have more support to go through challenges.
This was also the first time a Lean In event collaborated with Helpful Hands, a childminding service for workshops, conferences and events, to allow parents of young children to attend events to continue adult learning and self-development.
Helpful Hands was founded and is run by Sabrina Aripen. The Lean In Malaysia Sabah Open Day was a child-friendly event.
From the website, this is the definition of Lean In Circles.
Circles are a place where women can be unapologetically ambitious. Where we can give voice to our dreams and find the encouragement to start chasing them. They’re a place for sharing ideas, gaining skills, seeking advice, and showing solidarity. Most of all, they’re a place where we help each other become our very best selves. Whatever your goal—whether you’re working towards a promotion or building your confidence, reentering the workforce or starting a business—your circle will help you get there.
The Open Day saw a new group of women from different walks of life in different stages of their lives, from younger single mothers about to start their own business to stay-at-home mothers who wish to re-enter the workforce, come to meet Michelle and Hanaa to learn about the Lean In Movement and learn what Lean In Circles are.
Michelle shared her experience of how she joined the Lean In Coffee Dialogues in 2018 and met other women and heard from different speakers on various topics, and learned pointers from them to become more empowered to overcome stumbling blocks at work.
Hanaa showed the pages and videos on the leanin.org website about “How to start a Circle” and “Why” we would want to start a circle. Hanaa facilitated the discussion to include current challenges faced by all the women in the room.
Hanaa highlighted the benefits of Lean In Circles and emphasised that the more circles we can have in Sabah, the better, because this would mean more women could have the opportunity to be more empowered. Hanaa showed the page which listed nine Lean In Circles registered on the leanin. org website within a 25 mile radius of Kota Kinabalu, founded by different people and focusing on different areas of empowerment.
All are free to join any circle and also multiple circles.
A positive conclusion of the Open Day was seen when nine women agreed to join a new circle, Lean In Malaysia Sabah, and committed to meet monthly for the next 12 months.
This new circle also decided to bring back the Coffee Dialogues which will be open to the public as some of the members felt that they had benefited from these events and wished for more women to have the same opportunity for networking with like-minded women.
Both Michelle and Hanaa were encouraging and supportive of all the women who came, and congratulated all for having the courage to lean in.
The Open Day ended with a cake cutting ceremony.
Regus is hosting and supporting a number of events in the month of March in conjunction with International Women’s Day to celebrate all women.