Our Work
What We Do
SERATA promotes equal parenting, by shifting the focus of parenting to fatherhood and celebrating it the way we traditionally celebrate motherhood through the “Celebrating Fatherhood” campaign.
Ideally, any intervention to accomplish gender equality should begin at family level. A more hands-on father enables the redistribution of family responsibilities by being equally capable of caring for their children, allowing the mother to make choices for her own career and personal development.
Celebrating fatherhood aims to promote equal parenting, by acknowledging the importance of engaging fathers in raising children through highlighting stories from fathers who have been actively involved in parenting.
SERATA prioritizes prevention measures to achieve gender equality end gender-based violence. We believe that the best way to end violence against women and girls is to prevent it from happening in the first place by addressing its root and structural causes.
Therefore, SERATA focuses on educating and working with young boys in promoting respectful relationships and gender equality through a US-based curriculum LIVERESPECT™, an initiative by A Call To Men (http://www.liverespect.org/)
The curriculum
- promotes healthy, respectful manhood
- decreases language and actions that degrade women, girls and other marginalized groups
- challenges harmful cultural and social norms
- decreases instances of bullying and homophobia
To aid better communication and bonding between parents and their children, SERATA ran a 6-session Positive Parenting support group through a programme called Semarak Kasih – an initiative by UNICEF Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), The National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) and Maestral.
Each week, parents met up for 2-3 hours to share their challenges in parenting and together found solutions or actionable steps to work on.
SERATA looks forward to implementing more of these programs in the future, especially targeting fathers to get them engaged with caring for their children from the first 1000 days of a child’s life. Through this, we hope that it will help fathers create a strong bond with their children together with their life partners or co-parents.
Although SERATA is primarily an organization that promotes gender equality, we also work on other issues that are caused by inequalities. Corruption is a symptom of inequality and is often perpetrated by men.
The three-day workshop dubbed “East Malaysians Against Corruption”, was held in December 2019 in Gaya Centre Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The workshop was supported by the Malaysia Reform Initiative (MARI), US Embassy Kuala Lumpur and USAID. The 20 participants were made up of junior to mid-level, as well as senior activists from a wide array of organizations from all around Sabah and Sarawak.
The three-day workshop was aimed at improving the capabilities of Sabahan and Sarawakian activists to effectively engage in ending corruption using strategies which are communications to the public and government, policy and law-making under Malaysia Baharu, and engaging policy makers and the public on corruption-based issues.
Our Team
Sharing Our Passion
Sabrina Aripen
President
2021-2022
Sabrina holds a Masters degree in Accounting and Finance, but her passion has always been in social justice issues. Through formal and volunteer work, she has accumulated a total of 11 years working on gender issues.
In recognition of her outstanding work, she was awarded the Community Achievement Award 2018 by the Malaysian Australian Alumni Council and Outstanding Young Alumni 2019 by Griffith Business School.
Sabrina is currently pursuing a PhD in Humanities at Universiti Malaya
Robert Nicholas Hii
Vice President
2021-2022
Robert is a Mechanical Engineer by trade, water expert, and a proponent of social justice. He has been involved in activism and grassroots politics in Canada and here at home in Malaysia.
Mahsuri Dicky
Honorary Secretary
2021-2022
A founding member of SERATA, Mahsuri recently graduated with Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from UiTM Shah Alam. Her budding interest in gender issues and community development activities led her to volunteering for SERATA.
Tan Teik Jiao
Honorary Treasurer
2021-2022
Teik Jiao is an IT Analyst in a Financial Institution.
He was a Debater that represented his university during his tertiary education & decided to get more involved in activism rather than talking about issues in tournaments only.
Since then he had been actively involved in social justice issue through formal and volunteer work.
Dr Farhana Abdul Fatah
Committee Member - Education & Programmes
2021-2022
Dr. Farhana is an academic whose interests explore the intersections of language and identity, with gender, race, and religion. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from University of Warwick.
She joined SERATA in the hope to make theoretical knowledge impactful through real-life practice, and activism.
Dr Sylvia Lim Sze Wei
Committee Member - Membership & Public Relations
2021-2022
A dentist by profession, Dr Sylvia is a founding member of SERATA as she strongly believes in gender equality.
Hasanal Hassan Alban
Founding Member
A founding member of SERATA, Hasanal, or more fondly known as Coach Bon, is a fitness coach as well as a dedicated father and husband. He is a staunch supporter of sharing responsibilities in the home, and was one of the featured fathers in SERATA’s “Celebrating Fatherhood” campaign.
Shaznieffah Zakaria Edris
Founding Member
A founding member of SERATA, Shaz is a powerhouse – she is a business owner, fitness coach and property negotiator. She strongly believes in gender equality and champions women empowerment.
Mary Anne Baltazar
Founding Member
With us since our founding, Anne worked for 8 years with an international nonprofit dealing with marginalized women and children. Anne is dedicated to improving the lives of migrants, especially children who have little or no access to education and healthcare. She was awarded the Top Outstanding Young Persons of Sabah 2016 for her contribution to Children, World Peace or Human Rights by JCI Kota Kinabalu.
Stephie Joseph Benedict
Founding Member
Stephie holds a Masters in Art & Design and is one of the founding members of SERATA. She has significant experience in working with an international nonprofit that deals with marginalized women and children.
Kenneth Tan
Founding Member
Although Kenneth has relocated to the States, he was fundamental to the founding of SERATA. A champion of involved fatherhood, he was one of the fathers featured in SERATA’s “Celebrating Fatherhood” campaign.
Nicole Wee
Ordinary Member
Nicole is a seasoned Communications Strategist and has won Silver for Public Affairs in MPRA 2016. She believes in gender equality, particularly passionate about bridging gender pay gaps and merit-based employability. This conviction derives from her first-hand experience of how corporate companies consciously find excuses to not advance women with motherhood.
Nicole joined SERATA in hopes to alleviate these issues from every corner of the corporate scene and give Power Moms a chance to keep rising, breaking the glass ceilings for generations to come.