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It began, curiously enough, with a volunteer stint tutoring maths. In 2019, Sapna Kewalramani Malhotra started helping a girl from a financially challenged background with Secondary 2 maths. But after only a few months, she stepped back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kewalramani genuinely wanted to help, but she was not trained to teach maths. Surprisingly, the volunteer manager who had paired them suggested\u00a0Kewalramani help the girl\u2019s mother, Nooril Azurah Suntek Noor, instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Azurah has five children, including one with special needs, making it difficult to hold a full-time job. She was living in a small rental flat and supporting her children by baking delicious Nutella tarts from home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But she was not earning much \u2013 around a couple of hundred dollars monthly. She needed to earn more.<\/span><\/p>\n Having previously run a branding and illustration home business,\u00a0Kewalramani began mentoring Azurah. Every week for the next few months, she sat with Azurah, who came with her infant, discussing pricing, product differentiation, packaging and branding. Azurah\u2019s business Qwalaaa grew.<\/span><\/p>\n A few months later, the volunteer manager introduced\u00a0Kewalramani\u00a0to another financially challenged woman\u00a0running a home-based Malay food catering business. Then,\u00a0Kewalramani got to know a third woman selling murukku part-time.<\/span><\/p>\n The community grew. And volunteers with entrepreneurial, marketing, communications, finance, and photography experience started pouring in to help.<\/span><\/p>\n