Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim has just launched the KitaUntuk-Kita (K2K) programme, a Belanjawan 2023 initiative, that seeks to increase the liveability of public housing among the urban poor.
The K2K programme aims to enhance support to public housing communities and building management to solve social, economic, and physical challenges through four critical areas, namely, community empowerment, community co-management, improved income generation, and policy reform that will kick-off in Kuala Lumpur and expanded to Selangor.
The programme will be led by community leaders and community-based organisations while supported by Think City in collaboration with other participating partners and NGOs. It will also be strengthened by an Intergovernmental Committee that will involve various public and private stakeholders to accelerate coordination and implementation in the spirit of Malaysia Madani, and to benefit the public housing communities.
Noor Hayati Ismail, secretary of the PPR community organisation, Perwacom Prihatin, shared key insights into the real-life challenges and plight of the people at public housing. Perwacom was created during the Covid pandemic to help communities solve immediate problems and reduce the highly stressful environment created by the lockdown and other constraints. The momentum they have created has enabled them to build bridges across the community and to implement development-oriented programs with the help of partner organisations. They expressed their desire not to be a community that seeks handouts from the government but that seeks support to enable them to build a better future for themselves in their older age and for the future of their children.
