The document summarizes plans to empower residents of the small island of Mantanani in Sabah, Malaysia. The islanders face poverty and lack of opportunity, resources, and basic needs. The plan involves teaching skills like producing coconut oil soap and eco-friendly products from recycled materials to generate income. It will also provide education and jobs in areas like operating homestays and cafes. The goal is to improve livelihoods while preserving the local environment through a sustainable social enterprise model focusing on people, profit, and planet.

1. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
Mantanani is a small island in Sabah. 7km long and less than 1km wide
at certain parts, the island is populated by 1050 islanders, mostly
fishermen and their families.

2. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
The islanders’ stories are sad..
- of how students live on the jetty during the weekends
because they don’t have enough money to take a boat
home
- of how they lose their sons, father and husbands to the
rough seas
- of how poverty drives the islanders’ to ration and share
their food
- of how they lose their mothers, daughters and wives
during childbirth in the middle of the sea
- of how children fade away due to sickness… the list goes
on.
Some of them are so poor, with hardly RM1 a day, it places
them below poverty.

3. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
The men cannot fish as often as before due to unsuitable fishing
boats in unpredictable weather conditions. The ones who can
manage, take their little boats out to the sea to fish, while their
family pray for their safe return. The fish is then dried and sold to
a middle man for less than USD5.

4. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
Lack of basic needs such as clean water, sanitation, solid waste
management solution and proper health care sees them falling sick all
the time.

5. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
Houses made from zinc sheets and plywood is a sad sight.

6. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
They came to realize no one will help them unless they step up and make
that change. Waiting for something to jump out of the water wasn’t going
to change things. That was when we entered their lives, that was our
moment of unison. Now, we needed a PLAN!

7. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
The plan was to empower them with skills using their own strengths and
the natural resources of the island to create employment opportunities
Their natural resources were hundreds of coconut trees.. !!

8. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
?

9. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
Plan 1
all natural coconut oil soap !

10. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
• But natural soap and coconut oil was not
enough to generate the minimum income of
RM200 that we are striving for.. So we decided
to up the plan in the form of
Entrepreneurship
Employment
Education
Environment

11. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
• Sustainable Eco Merchandize – Eko Purse
The Eko Purses are made from discarded
plastic coffee, candy and instant noodle
wrappers. Since the island does not have
a Solid Waste Management system in
place, this works perfect in reducing the
amount of plastic waste generated.
Entrepreneurship

12. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
• Our youngest Entrepreneur is 7 years old. For every bag of plastic bottles
her “network” brings in, she gets RM0.50 or 4 hours of play time. In
return, she educates her friends on environment
Education
Environment
As part of Education,
we also plan to set up
a Recycle Bank where
kids can deposit their
plastic bottles as
credit, which can be
redeemed for
environmental movie
screenings or to rent
sports equipments
such as badminton
racquets.

13. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
• Employment – we plan to employ the islanders to work at the training
centre to produce soap, learn how to run cafes & home stays, learn basic
math & accounting, learn English & communication as part of
sustainability and Eco tourism. Of course the view in front of the training
centre is an incentive for all working there 

14. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
PEOPLE
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE
PROFIT PLANET
The plan to help them generate a revenue (profit) ensuring the
preservation of biodiversity of marine life and natural resources
(planet), and at the same time give an opportunity of entrepreneurship
and empowerment to these islanders (people).

15. EMPOWERING MANTANANI
Thank you and wish us luck!
The End…
