Meeting with MENGO.

MENGO which stands for Malaysian Environmental NGO is basically a community of 19 green NGOs formed under the DANIDA-supported (which stands for Danish International Development Assistance) programme for environmental assistance to Malaysia. One of its main causes is to facilitate an effective interaction and provide strategic input to the local government on environmental-related policies.

We met up with Dr. Sundari who is the main coordinator and holds a PhD in Marine Biology (plus a wealth of experience and knowledge on education and research as well) to give us an overview of not just what they do as a unit but also how they are impacting the society indirectly through their involvement in the government's planning process. Aside from that, it was also interesting to note that the members of MENGO come from pretty diverse backgrounds, from technology and development to consumer associations to tree savers to research - all coming together to promote environmental conservation and sustainable living. Shows that perhaps this 'business' is not all about stopping the cutting of trees huh.

It was our first meeting, so the overview opened our research parameters to a lot of possibilities (and work!) and also provided us with an understanding of how MENGO supports the relevant parties and in turn, receives some funding. I think as with the nature of any non-profit organisations, it is rather hard to employ and sustain professionals because they were 'never meant to earn any money'. Is that true at all? It's funny how the society wants the environment to stay clean, safe and ever green, yet when we need money to provide a livelihood for experienced professionals to do just that which is competitive to the business sector, we think of it as greed. To create great, effective and sustainable projects, we must first be able to effectively employ and sustain great minds, no?