Being in their 20s and not wanting to be labelled a hypocrite got John-Son Oei and Jayne Kennedy started on a bigger cause of building homes for the orang asli.
Home on the range: Volunteers undertaking the task of building and completing a home in three days under an Epic Homes programme. In the process they build a relationship too with the family they are building the home for. — Pictures courtesy of Epic Homes
IT all started with a challenge. Like many young people, John-Son Oei and Jayne Kennedy love parties, having fun and doing their own thing but at a young leadership programme, someone told them “you guys talk a lot but don’t do much”.
“We thought, how true! What are we doing to contribute?” says 27-year-old Kennedy.
They looked around for one project to do, says Oei, “so that we could just shrug off that label of being a hypocrite”.
The project they decided on was to build a toilet for an orang asli family in Kuala Kubu Baru and repaint some of the houses there.
When they put a call out on Facebook for volunteers, many signed on.
“That is when we realised that contrary to what some people say or think, a lot of people care and they want to help the poor. They want to get their hands dirty,” says Oei, who is 28.
Buoyed by that success, Oei, Kennedy and two friends went to another orang asli village in Batang Kali hoping to do the same.
But they came across a house in such a bad shape that they wanted to instead build the villager a whole house but had no clue how.
“None of us has any construction background. During the car ride back, one of us came up with the idea of putting together a house like a piece of Ikea furniture. We all laughed it off but somehow, that idea stuck.
“Every time we meet an architect or an engineer, we would ask if they had heard of such a concept – a house that can easily be built by anyone and it needs to be done by three days.
“We thought that two days was too idealistic and three days seemed more realistic for students and people with full-time jobs who really care to come out and do this,” says Oei.
New concept: Oei (left) and Kennedy.
That is how Epic Homes started.
For Oei, the founder and chief executive officer of Epic Homes, and Kennedy, who is the co-founder, the concept is more than building houses – it is about building relationships.
Oei says people and organisations often swoop in from outside with preconceived notions and solutions of what the villagers need or want and try to force these on them.
“When we first started, we tried that but it wasn’t going anywhere. We were very enthusiastic and had a short time to spare and wanted to see immediate results and impact.
“But we realised that people weren’t opening up to us. We were strangers after all and we weren’t taking time to ask and listen to what they actually want.”
That is why Epic Homes shifted its focus early from just putting up a house to how it can build a relationship between the volunteers and the villagers.
“A ‘touch-and-go’ kind of thing wouldn’t work because we first need to understand them, gain their trust so that they will be able to open up,” he says.
So, before they start building houses in any village, Epic Homes would first embark on a community engagement exercise where they meet the village head and villagers in a townhall kind of meeting.
“We would clarify that our intent is not just to ‘drop houses and go’ but to build a relationship with them, understand the issues and be able to work together with them,” says Oei.
He says they would also lay down the criteria of how a house is selected to be built – for example, structurally damaged houses, those small, 600 sq ft homes overcrowded with 15 to 20 people and families with growing children will take priority.
Oei points out that villagers can discuss the criteria, agree or disagree, add or take out things from these until they come to an agreement.
Then, Epic Homes will do a village-wide survey based on the criteria that the villagers had agreed on using a point system and list the houses to be built according to the order.
Oei says the process is transparent and the list is put on display in the village so that everyone can see which house is first and the next one after that.
“They agreed as a village how they are going to do this. It empowers the villagers. At the end of the day, they have a choice over how things are going to be done in their village. That is where dignity is – the power of choice,” he says.
“I also tell the villagers that although we come from the city, not all of us are rich. We are not millionaires and we don’t have the money yet. But we will try our best and our hope is to eventually provide all of you with a home. But we need to first work together to achieve that,” says Oei.
When Epic Homes started building houses for the orang asli in 2011, each house cost RM20,000 to RM25,000 but back then, they forgot to factor in transportation and operational costs.
One of the completed Epic Homes.
Today, with transportation and operational costs included, it costs about RM42,000 for a house.
Volunteers would first need to attend a five-hour “Builders Basic” course where they are taught how to drill, hammer, saw and use some other power tools.
They are also given a run-through on the site and safety protocols, what to wear for different applications, how to properly set up a scaffold to climb and how to put on their safety harness before they can go on a build-a-house job.
The half-day course run by Epic Homes costs RM125 excluding GST and is one of its social business models. The sessions are held three to four times each month.
After the five hours, they can go and build a house.
Kennedy says there is a crucial reason Epic Homes want volunteers to build the house, rather than some contractor.
“We wanted to build it together to basically show the villagers that they are worth more than they think they are,” she says.
“If these strangers are willing to come together to help without knowing you, we want you to know how important you are.”
Oei says that for the orang asli, it is hard for them to grasp how much RM50,000 or RM40,000 is.
“If you say to him ‘I got this house for you. Can we be friends?’ the impact would not be as significant as working side by side with him, sweating it out under the hot sun and in the rain and putting yourself out there.
“You can’t buy relationships with money,” says Oei.
It takes about 30 to 40 volunteers to build a house in that three days. Oei says for sure, there will be one or two who will take a special liking to the family and bond, going back and visiting the family later.
“They might share a hobby like fishing or may just go back to hang out.”
He says in every single village they have been, this always happens and there will always be a group of advocates who really care about the village.
“They worked together with the villager as friends. They are not some orang asli in the jungle. It is Ibu Piah, Pak Tan, Mak Bedah. These are people.”
As young graduates starting Epic Homes, Oei says they broke through a lot of boundaries.
“When you don’t know, you don’t really have fear. There is no ego and we have nothing to lose.”
Today, their exciting ideas are embraced even by some big companies who come to them to Build-a-Home as a team-building exercise.
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