Meet Abd Rahman, a guy with 'gold in his hands'!

En Abd Rahman at his workshop

I celebrated my birthday with something different this year. 3 of my friends and I went to a very special house in Air Hitam, Muar. Our plan is to meet a guy with 'gold in his hands', given by God to him. His name is Abd Rahman - a carver (tukang ukir). Inherited the skill from his late father, he use his skill for a living.

batang cangkul: main source of his income

From a business trip (one of us would like to order something from him), this visit had become a start of a community project for us.

The first machine while he start his business in 1999.

Some of the sample & patterns available in his workshop

Having a small workshop in his backyard and living in a small village, Abd Rahman did not know how to market his work and didn't see the bigger potential of his skill. After having some nice chat and looking to his art work, we can see how skillful and talented Abd Rahman is and we, then decided to help him in every way that we could.

Most of  the design & drawings is done by his wife

 Our first step is to publish his story in Berita Harian, in hope to get potential customers to get to know him and to market his artwork through the article.

Verbally, my friend in Berita Harian already agreed to help. The next step is for me to prepare the article and pictures and submit to Berita Harian. That, I will do within this month.

The second step is actually to help him to get any sort of financial support (from Mara etc) to grow his business.

The third step is to help him create and manage a facebook account special for his business.

and the final step is to design and sell products that we can order from him such as bedroom light, tabletop display and mirror with frames to help him sustain with his business.

I will share more about this project (including more pictures) very soon!





Update (11.05.2012): Story about Abd Rahman will be published in Berita Harian very soon. Now, we are moving to the second step! :)