Women of the Future Awards Southeast Asia is an award that recognises women who are doing significant and impactful work in different categories. The awards provide a platform to showcase regional emerging leaders. Many of which are not afraid to question the status quo and break boundaries. At the recent Women of the Future Awards, three Malaysian women won the award in their respective categories!
Women of the Future Southeast Asia
This initiative originates from the UK where its vision is to build a global and collaborative network of women. As part of this vision, the brand expanded to Southeast Asia three years ago. Additionally, the programme also provides expertise and experience which can bring positive impact.
Meanwhile, Asia is the first ever region outside of the UK for the Women of the Future awards. This is because the programme can help to encourage, motivate, and provide role models to women in Asia. As a result, it can inspire and strengthen the female talent which is sorely lacking in the region.
The categories in the programme include Business, Arts & Culture, Community Spirit & Public Service, and Entrepreneur. Furthermore, Media & Communication, Professions, and Science, Technology & Digital are also categories. Lastly, women are also nominated for the categories of Property, Construction, & Infrastructure, Social Entrepreneur, and Mentor of the Year.
Malaysians Making Us Proud
A total of 11 Malaysian women were nominated for the various categories! For Arts & Culture the nominees were Annice Teo Ann Lyn, Nicole Lai, Lisa Surihani, and Ernie Zakri. Meanwhile, Jess Yap was nominated for Business and Cynthia Ng for Media & Communications.
Moreover, under the Mentor category was Dr Nellie Tan Sweet Lian while Heidy Quah was in the Community Spirit and Public Service category. Lastly, under Science, Technology & Digital we had Dr Bee Lynn Chew, Wan Yong Ho, and Dr Siu Yee New.
Amongst the 11 nominees, three of them won the Women of the Future award. We would like to congratulate Annice Teo Ann Lyn, Heidy Quah, and Dr Bee Lynn Chew for winning in their respective categories!
Annice Teo Ann Lyn
Annice is a documentary and sports photographer with many different inspirations. On her website, Anntopia, you can find her work in wedding, portrait, and sports photography. Her passion for photography first emerged while pursuing her degree in Architecture.
During the MCO period, she took the opportunity to co-found Women Photographers Malaysia (WPM). This is a platform to support other women and non-binary creatives through workshops, meet-ups, and a safe space for storytelling.
Dr Bee Lynn Chew
Dr Chew is a research scientist at Universiti Sains Malaysia with an interest in food crops. Her work includes collaborating with farmers and food growers in Malaysia to help improve cultivation methods. As a result, farmers can increase crop yields and improve their own livelihoods.
As a result of the pandemic, Dr Chew is now looking for answers to solve rising food insecurity and unemployment in Malaysia. She aims to merge plant science with modern precision farming to bring quality plants and affordable and nutritious food to those living in Malaysia.
Heidy Quah
Back in 2012, at just the age of 18 years old, Heidy Quah co-founded Refuge for the Refugees (RFTR) which is a non-profit organisation. Today, she still firmly stands with the organisation that aims to raise awareness regarding the plight of refugees in Malaysia.
Eight years after setting on this mission, RFTR has constructed 35 schools, two halfway homes, as well as a social business school. All these work towards supporting the livelihoods of refugees through various means. In addition to RFTR, Heidy is also very active in fighting for human rights issues in our country.
