Cover Soraya Alkaff is the executive director and founder of Cahaya Surya Bakti, an NGO in Johor that offers comprehensive education for refugees (Photo: Fady Younis)
Soraya Alkaff is the executive director and founder of Cahaya Surya Bakti, an NGO in Johor that offers comprehensive education for refugees (Photo: Fady Younis)
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Soraya Alkaff is the executive director and founder of Cahaya Surya Bakti, an NGO in Johor that offers comprehensive education for refugees
Over a decade ago, Soraya Alkaff returned to Johor from Paris, where she lived for many years. Before that, she spent over a decade raising her family between Indonesia and Singapore after her husband accepted a job opportunity in Jakarta.
A devoted mother with keen business instincts and a knack for noticing those who are overlooked, Soraya encountered a group of Rohingya refugees after joining an international volunteer movement helping women and girls in Johor.
Involved in the funding of the Rohingya Learning Centre there, she eventually opened a refugee school in Kulai. She founded Cahaya Surya Bakti (CSB) in 2017, an NGO that provides education and community-based support to the refugee population in Johor.
Read more: 5 female-led social enterprises in Malaysia that empower refugees
In the last seven years, CSB has grown from a scattered group of learning centres to having seven branches across the state, with a school in Kempas that is the only refugee school in Johor offering education from Kindergarten level through to IGCSE.
“I’m 72 years old. I started CSB in Malaysia when I was 60,” quips Soraya, who was raised in Singapore in the 60s, where she attended St Margaret’s girls’ school.
“I was given the chance to reinvent myself and to be of service. It is never too late to change and start something new in life, and especially if the effort helps others like education does—transforming lives and communities, to break the cycle of poverty and to impact change that will have a ripple effect for generations to come.”
Ahead of World Refugee Day this June, Soraya tells Tatler about her philosophy of life and the hurdles she overcame to ensure that more young people receive an education and change their lives for the better.
Above Fluent in French, Soraya enrolled in the Sorbonne University in the 70s to learn languages, architecture and history when she lived in Paris
Above The Johor-born, Singapore-raised philanthropist wants to use education as a tool to lift young people from poverty
Fluent in French, Soraya enrolled in the Sorbonne University in the 70s to learn languages, architecture and history when she lived in Paris
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Is there a special story behind your NGO’s name ‘Cahaya Surya Bakti’?
Translated (roughly) from Sanskrit, Cahaya means light or brightness. Surya is the sun—the brightness of which the Earth goes around, giving us warmth, light and life. Bakti is the devotion to do good, to be of service. These are the central tenets of what we do every day.
Can you share the pivotal moments that led you to establish CSB?
I’d spent a good part of a decade working with different NGOs in both Southeast Asia and Europe. Those experiences were invaluable in helping me gain insights about what works and what doesn’t. I met incredible people—refugees, aid workers, donors–who inspired me to see beyond what’s in front of me and aim for something bigger.
I realised that to make as big an impact as possible, we needed to establish a solid, legitimate organisation with transparency at all levels. There was also an absence of organisations that looked at the refugee context and the myriad of related issues with a holistic approach, taking into consideration access to other basic rights and the need to look beyond just providing basic literacy and numeracy. With this in mind, I sought to build Cahaya Surya Bakti as a beacon of refugee education in Malaysia.
See also: How Maggie Grout is making education accessible through 3D-printed schools
Above CSB Secondary graduates of 2023
CSB Secondary graduates of 2023
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You weren’t able to attend university immediately after high school. What were your feelings about this?
I was given the opportunity to attend Universiti Teknologi MARA, but back then, my mother did not like the idea of me being alone in a boarding school away from home and the family. I didn’t feel like I missed anything at the time, but this was the ’60s, mind you, and the expectations placed on sons and daughters were very different then versus nowadays.
It was in 1974 when I was living in Paris that I enrolled in the Sorbonne University to learn languages, architecture and history. This shaped my experience in Europe, immersing me in Paris’ art, culture and way of life.
Are there any inspiring milestones or stories from CSB’s work with refugees that stand out?
One of the biggest moments was in 2022 when four of our graduates managed to secure full scholarships to pursue undergraduate degree programmes of their choice at two universities in the Philippines—De La Salle University and Columban College.
That to me was a culmination of many years of all our hard work and testimony to the fact that the standard of education we provide is at par with the rest. Today, eight refugee youth are pursuing their undergraduate education abroad in the Philippines on full scholarships and we also have graduates who have resettled to countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Another major moment was when we partnered with the UNHCR to open the Johor Outreach Community Centre (JOCC) during the pandemic.
Above Soraya spent almost a decade working with different NGOs in both Southeast Asia and Europe
Soraya spent almost a decade working with different NGOs in both Southeast Asia and Europe
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It was an uphill battle to convince the parents to allow their kids to stay in school beyond a certain age. The mindset is that by age 12, girls need to leave school to prepare for marriage.
What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome when you first started the NGO?
It was an uphill battle to convince the parents to allow their kids to go to school or stay in school beyond a certain age. The mindset is that by age 12, girls need to leave school to prepare for marriage. Boys usually get pulled out at 14 years old so they can start working and bringing home income.
Now, parents can see for themselves what education can do for their kids and insist that their kids go to school. These young people are transforming their lives, breaking the cycle of poverty, and this will in turn transform communities.
Do you have any advice for other individuals looking to make a positive impact on refugee rights and education?
My advice is this—while one-off contributions and support are useful, in order to make a real and positive impact, one must remember that education is a lifelong journey and an investment that takes time to yield a return. The longer the investment, the bigger the yield over time.
Previously contributing to Esquire Malaysia, Expat Lifestyle and Newsweek, Tania oversees digital stories across Tatler’s key content pillars, also leading the Front & Female platform exploring issues and topics affecting women today.
