Two programs, launched within months of each other in 2024, have since expanded to show how QI Group’s RYTHM Foundation adapts its community development model across Southeast Asia. 

One program trains indigenous Malaysians in ecotourism skills to preserve their heritage while generating income. The other equips Indonesian farmers with climate-smart agriculture techniques to address environmental degradation and gender inequality. 

Both spring from the same organizational philosophy: Raise Yourself to Help Mankind. 

Ecotourism in Malaysia

The Kensiu people in Kampung Lubuk Legong, Baling, Kedah are one of Malaysia’s oldest indigenous communities, part of the broader Orang Asli population. Just 312 residents from 87 families call this northern Malaysian village home. For decades, only a small percentage of Kensiu children completed their schooling. The education gap between Orang Asli students and their peers remains wide, a pattern repeated across Malaysia’s indigenous communities.

The RYTHM Foundation launched a three-year Community Adoption Program in Kedah in 2024, focusing on education enhancement and sustainable ecotourism development. The initiative teaches Kensiu youth hospitality, tour guiding, and conservation skills. A long-term goal involves establishing Taman Warisan Kensiu, a heritage park serving as both cultural preservation site and economic hub.

Sustainable Farming in Indonesia

Meanwhile, roughly 2,400 kilometers southeast in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, the RYTHM Foundation has partnered with Plan International Indonesia on a different challenge. The Green Skills Project is training 200 young farmers—60% of them women—in climate-smart agriculture principles (CSAs). 

The initiative focuses on participants between 18 and 29 years old, working with 10 farmer collectives across six villages to build climate-smart business strategies. While farming drives the regional economy, outdated techniques leave small farmers vulnerable to climate disruptions and damage local ecosystems. At the same time, there is a surplus of youth seeking employment. The program helps train these young people to gain employment while simultaneously addressing the need for a more sustainable agricultural future.  

Different Problems Require Different Solutions

The Kedah and Indonesia programs share core objectives—youth empowerment, economic opportunity creation, environmental sustainability—but diverge in execution based on local realities.

Kedah’s Kensiu community faces geographical isolation and limited economic opportunities beyond traditional livelihoods. But Malaysia’s broader push toward ecotourism creates potential demand for indigenous cultural experiences. Tourism Malaysia introduced Pulau Pinang and Kedah Archaeotourism and Geotourism packages in 2024, signaling government recognition of the region’s tourism potential. RYTHM Foundation’s program positions Kensiu youth to benefit from this trend while maintaining cultural integrity.

The training focuses on skills that leverage existing knowledge. Kensiu people possess deep environmental understanding from generations living in close connection with their natural surroundings. The program translates this indigenous knowledge into marketable tourism services: guiding visitors through forests, explaining traditional practices, and demonstrating sustainable resource use.

Indonesia’s Manggarai district presents different dynamics. Agriculture is already a foundation of the regional economy; the challenge lies in making it environmentally sustainable and gender-inclusive. Young farmers often wait until their 40s or 50s to inherit land, spending intervening years seeking non-agricultural work. The Green Skills Project teaches climate-smart techniques these young people can implement on existing farms.

QI Group’s Scale Enables Global Social Impact

QI Group is able to support the wide variety of the RYTHM Foundation’s projects in part because of its multinational scale. The conglomerate operates business units spanning education, hospitality, luxury goods, and wellness sectors across more than 30 countries, with over 2,000 employees representing nearly 50 nationalities. This geographic and human scale allows the company to support community programs that speak to the RYTHM philosophy across vastly different contexts.

QI Group’s business portfolio spans education through Quest International University in Malaysia, hospitality via eco-certified resorts in four countries, luxury goods including century-old Swiss watchmaker Cimier, and organic food retail through Hawaii’s Down to Earth chain. The company channels 10% of annual revenues to RYTHM Foundation rather than treating philanthropy as discretionary spending.

Last year, this funding model supported 15 global projects that impacted 7,081 children, uplifted 650 women through skills training, and engaged 78 communities. 

Employees have contributed more than 125,000 hours to community service since 2013.

Finding a Common Thread

RYTHM Foundation’s expansion strategy involves identifying common patterns across communities while respecting local specificities. 

Programs supported by the foundation often share structural elements: multi-year commitments, local partnership arrangements, education components paired with economic skill development, explicit attention to youth and women. Implementation details shift according to geography, culture, and economic context.

The foundation structures all projects around three focus areas aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: education access for children in remote communities, skills training and economic opportunities for young women, and rural community development promoting self-sustainability. Within this framework, Kedah emphasizes cultural preservation and tourism, while Indonesia prioritizes environmental restoration and agricultural modernization.

QI Group submitted its Communication on Progress report to the UN Global Compact in 2025, reaffirming commitments to responsible business practices across operations. The report documents how sustainability principles embedded in the company’s operations extend through RYTHM Foundation’s community programs.

Santhi Periasamy, Head of RYTHM Foundation, emphasized the common thread: “Youth have the energy, creativity, and drive to shape a more sustainable future.”

Whether that energy applies to guiding tourists through Kedah’s forests or growing climate-resistant crops in Manggarai fields depends on local circumstances, but the foundation’s expanding geographic footprint reflects the need to support youth development and sustainability worldwide.