Anywhere and everywhere Gerai OA will go !
If you want to see autumn in Malaysia, just head to Gua Musang, Kelantan before the seasonal March-May dry spell hits the area.
The russet-coloured trees (pic) are the Hevea brasiliensis trees or more commonly known as rubber trees. Reita Rahim, the founder and coordinator of Gerai OA and I (the car volunteer whose duty during the pick-up trips is to drive and pack crafts) were treated to the beautiful autumn roadside scenery during our drive from Kuala Lumpur to Gua Musang using the Bentong route.
Both of us were on our way to Kuala Betis, Kelantan, to be more specific, to meet up with the Temiar craftmakers. The Temiar craftmakers are from Pos Tohoi and Kampung Peralong villages, about an hour, and half an hour away from the town of Kuala Betis respectively.
Reita and I had to meet the craftmakers at Kuala Betis because the villages aforementioned are only accessible via a logging trail from Kuala Betis onwards. For this trip, we only had the service of a MyVi that is incapable of trekking through rough off-road conditions of an hour’s logging trail.
Elevyn’s first and only trip into Pos Tohoi and Kg Peralong was about 4 months ago, back in October 2009. That trip was to seek free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from the Temiar craftmakers to sell their products online on www.elevyn.com under Gerai OA online.
Elevyn promotes buying directly from the artisans but not all artisans especially from the more rural indigenous groups, are capable to sell directly online as yet. Some of the more rural villages are handicapped through the lack of basic amenities like electricity and running water. Other villages are quite difficult to access that it takes at least an hour from the nearest town to get in, notwithstanding the bad road conditions (i.e. sinkholes, uneven ruts, man-sized potholes, soft muddy dirt tracks just to name a few). Even within a village, many of the artisans stay far apart from each other that it is quite challenging to get organised as a community group at the moment.
But through Gerai OA, volunteers go into the villages with Reita (some with 4WDs) to collect crafts from door to door; remit sales monies to the respective artisans and distribute over-the-counter medicines; and bring crafts back to Kuala Lumpur to be tagged, marketed and sold at rent-free sites. Because the volunteers are not paid, 100% of the sales monies go back to the artisans at the end of the day. This provides an avenue of income for the indigenous craftmakers while giving a tangible incentive to “revive and revitalize the Malaysian indigenous craft heritage (Reita Rahim, 2010)”.
With the Elevyn-Gerai OA collaboration, the indigenous groups can have access to the online market giving their crafts a wider access to buyers. However, because Gerai OA still maintains its 100% sales monies go back to artisans policy, the Gerai OA shop on www.elevyn.com has to add an extra 15% on top of the product price to defray online charges.
All the indigenous craftmakers have previously agreed to sell their products under Gerai OA but for offline sales only. Thus, the FPIC-ing for the Temiar craftmakers. Reita and I spent 2 and 1/2 days at Pos Tohoi to meet all the craftmakers.

Reita Rahim (centre) and Aishah (right) gathering history about the settlement and stories of the crafts ©2009-Suli
We did Kampung Peralong on our way out in the late evening during a heavy downpour, in a traditional Temiar house made from split bamboo and in the dark, where the only source of light came from 2 oil lamps and 4 flashlights.
Elevyn managed to get the agreement of all the craftmakers at Pos Tohoi and Kampung Peralong to sell their items via www.elevyn.com /shop/geraioa. Some of the Temiar craftmakers that have been selling their items online already are Jaja@Abong Atam, Saidi Osman, and Angah Anjang.
Back then, we had the help from GEC (Global Environment Centre) to loan their 4WD to send Reita and myself into and out of Pos Tohoi and Kg. Peralong, because they were also concurrently running a project within the area, which ended at the end of 2009. It was also during that fateful trip that I, an ignorant city girl, was exposed to the adventures of living a rural life. Having nothing to do on a sweltering hot day while waiting for our ride out of Pos Tohoi, I decided to wait out a pregnant hen, which has been clucking for the longest time ever since the day we arrived at the village, to lay her egg. I think I was the source of amusement for the village (i.e. the mothers and children cooling off at their verandahs) as I ran to catch the freshly laid chicken egg that was tumbling down the baking hot zinc roof above the verandah of our host’s plank PPRT (the Malaysian Hard-Core Poor Development Programme) house. The egg fell onto the grassy ground before I could catch it though but fortunately it did not crack. Phew ! It ended up as a kid’s dinner later…
But I digress.
The first person to meet us at Kuala Betis was Aishah, our coordinator and our host from Pos Tohoi. She came on her old faithful – a 2nd hand underbone motorcycle or locally known as kapchai – all covered with dirt from the logging trail with a giant bagful of crafts from her village strapped to her back and neck. We quickly relieved her of her load and followed her to an Orang Asli transit point to meet the other craftmakers there. As soon as I drove into the compound, a small entourage from Kg Peralong on their underbone motorcycles trailed in.
Reita dealt with the craftmakers one by one, making a list of new crafts brought in, remitting the sales monies and paying the advance for the new crafts.

Angah Anjang looking at a screenshot of his "Bubu pacik/ked" that was sold off on www.elevyn.com ©2010-Suli
Reita and I also brought with us some donated items for the Temiar people. There was a flurry of activity as soon as we opened the boxes as the people rushed to grab any clothes that could fit them or their children.
Special note: Thanks Kak Juliana Abdul Rahim for all the donated items !
After dealing with the craftmakers at the transit point, all three of us – Aishah, Reita and myself – went out to a small warung (Malay roadside stall) to deal with the rest of the crafts from Pos Tohoi that Aishah brought with her.
Two hours later, all sales monies were given to Aishah to be remitted to the respective craftmakers of Pos Tohoi and new crafts loaded into the Myvi for Elevyn and Gerai OA !
“The Temiar are the second largest goup within the Orang Asli, the indigenous minorities of Peninsular Malaysia. Reita Rahim (2010)”






















Written by Kong Chin Tuan, captain of the 1 Malaysia team that made it to the Final of the Elevyn Futsal Tournament.









