My Role Model – Mek Wok binti Awang Lah
Yesterday (27 March 2021) I was sitting as a panel in an online session titled Women in Tech for Kuala Lumpur Startup Summit 2021.
My role model
One of the question asked in WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL.
My first role model is my Grandmother Puan Mek Wok Binti Awang Lah who I called Nenek. As the first grandchild, I spent a lot of time with her growing up. As a role model to look up to — > Here is why:
My grandmother was born in Kelantan, her life story for me is proof of ‘women's power’. She was married at a quite young age. Growing up in a rural area in Bachok Kelantan. My mum, her first daughter born in 1949 and then 4 more kids - 2 died very early. All the things that she showed me might be simple for other people but this amazing woman has a very basic formal education and live her whole life in a rural area.
Why?
When my mum was 13 years old, she went to Sekolah Tun Fatimah (STF), a prestigious all-women school in the country at the time. This is not an easy thing to achieve. Some of the challenges:
- My mother will be the first girl to go outside of the village to boarding school
- Mindset in the community – Girls should just stay at home taking care of kids and cook; girls if not monitored will do bad things.
- My Family have no money to send my mum from Kelantan to Melaka (At that time STF is still in Melaka)
Nenek’s dream is simple – She wants her child to study in a school where there is a lot of good female teacher. What she did:
- Have a tea event to collect money
- Send my Mum ALONE via train to Melaka
- Work very hard to be able to support the additional expenses
To all the people that says – Dangerous to send your daughter away without monitoring. This is her standard answer, which I still believe today
If the child wants to do bad things, even if you locked them in the house they will find a way to do it! The key has you nurture them with the right value system when they grow up. -- By Mek Wok binti Awang Lah
Because of this amazing and ambitious lady – the current generation in my family has a better life. I am always amazed at nenek’s courage to fight the norm to allow her children to be better.
Missed her so much. Al-fatihah.