Dyslexic student excels, sets up business to help housewives, the elderly

10 Sep 2023

Nuryanee Anisah Mohamed Noor's learning journey as someone with dyslexia has been a long and arduous one. Every week, she has to attend the letter recognition programme at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS). In secondary school, her performance was good, but she had to repeat because she failed the GCE 'O' level exams due to an anxiety disorder caused by dyslexia. After her second attempt, she was admitted into SP to pursue business administration. There, she excelled in her studies and extracurricular activities while continuing to deal with dyslexia. Today, she is a second-year student at NUS Business School. At SP, she took part in activities that she did not think she could do. "As someone with dyslexia, I have difficulty communicating and being a leader. At SP, I dared to participate in various extracurricular activities and had the opportunity to lead the Red Cross humanitarian division. In her second year at SP, she and four friends established Commenhers, which gave new life to discarded fabric. Initially the products were sewn by her and her friends, but they saw it as a good opportunity to empower housewives and help them earn additional resources. The team has grown from three people at the beginning to 40 people now. They consist of the elderly, housewives and local tailors. Commenhers has launched two co-working spaces in Toa Payoh and Yuhua. Ms Nuryanee plans to run Commenhers full-time after graduation, or work with a social or sustainability organisation that allows her to contribute to society.