It started with a dream. Ratnadewi Lim had always aspired to climb the corporate ladder, and she had the intelligence and determination to achieve it. With gumption and hard work, she obtained excellent grades for her STPM examinations, a pre-university requisite in Malaysia. However, despite her outstanding performance, Ratnadewi had difficulty gaining admission into the local universities. 

Ratnadewi was faced with a dilemma. In order to continue pursuing her dream, she needed to get a degree from a private university but it meant spending a much higher sum of money and she lacked the funds. It was at this point that a friend’s mother stepped in to encourage her to apply for a YTL Foundation scholarship.

The YTL Foundation is a non-profit organisation in Malaysia, where the Asia Gender Network member Kathleen Chew, Group Legal Counsel for the YTL Group, is serving as Programme Director. It aims to make quality education accessible through scholarships, new pedagogy, after-school community engagement for the underprivileged, and more.

Ratnadewi fit the profile of the people Kathleen seeks to help through YTL Foundation. As Kathleen herself once said, “empowered women with knowledge, education, and opportunities can lift entire communities along with them.” Ratnadewi was successfully awarded the scholarship and she would then go on to complete her business degree from a reputable university. Upon graduation, Ratnadewi was ready to achieve her career goal. But her experience with the YTL Foundation proved to be a pivotal turning point. “YTL Foundation took a leap of faith and entrusted their confidence in me,” she says. Inspired by the opportunity she was given, she decided to head in a different direction and go into teaching.

Today, she is a government teacher in a high-need school in Kuala Lumpur where she works with students from low socio-economic backgrounds. She firmly believes that everyone can achieve excellence as long as they are given a chance, much like the one she got. “Now I am doing the same for my students through education and giving the same opportunities YTL Foundation gave me,” Ratnadewi said excitedly.

Ratnadewi believes that deprivation of a meaningful education is a root cause of many social issues in her country. This fuels her passion for educating and shaping the younger generation, and the positive impact she’s made is a shining example of what we can achieve through supporting women and girls.