Secured livelihoods for women and youth in Indonesia and Malaysia
Partner for community organizing in Sabah (PACOS Trust)
Pacos Trust was founded in 1987 by students to fight poverty in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Today, Pacos Trust is an officially registered foundation in Malaysia with the aim of strengthening indigenous communities in Sabah.
The focus is on three goals:
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Securing the livelihoods of indigenous communities. To this end, it is important to ensure, among other things, that indigenous communities have legal title to the land they cultivate under customary law.
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Utilization and strengthening of indigenous knowledge systems, especially in the management of natural resources.
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Preserve and strengthen positive indigenous value systems, cultural practices, and languages as a basis for livelihood improvement.
Pacos supports over 100 village communities and more than 20 community learning centers. These offer, for example, play groups for children, income generation for women and training on current issues such as expropriation, environmental degradation, women's rights and family violence.
Mission 21 is working with PACOS in the area of strengthening village communities in the neglected regions of Sabah. Future leaders, especially women, of the village communities are trained in building community-initiated projects and learning centers so that the communities as a whole are strengthened in their self-reliance and resilience.
