Charity Drive to buy School Bags and School Shoes for Poor Primary Schoolchildren11 November 2007,
Kerteh, Terengganu
What came from a simple desire to help poor schoolchildren has grown into full bloom as XL Life Member Ir. Rashid Sidek took action and proposed the idea to his company's upper management as a possible Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project.
Very quickly, the idea developed into a working plan to gather funds for purchasing school bags and school shoes to be distributed to poor schoolchildren in the Kerteh area of Terengganu, the centre of Malaysia's petro-chemical industry.
In true entreprenuer style of leveraging on the power of collaboration with like-minded people, Ir. Rashid's company, Toyo Engineering & Construction Sdn Bhd (Toyo-M) http://www.toyo-m.com.my teamed up with the Institution of Engineers (IEM) http://www.iem.org.my Kerteh Chapter to gather the funds from their companies, staff, vendors, subcontractors and supportive families and friends.
The total sum collected quickly grew into a grand total of RM 27,444 by the time the presentation ceremony occured at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Kerteh (Kerteh Primary School).
The beaming beneficiaries of the fruits of this labour were the poor deserving primary school children, a total of 280 children from 9 primary schools in the surrounding Kerteh and Kemaman area. These children were carefully chosen by the Kemaman Education Office based on children
who come from families with a total income of less than RM400 per month. The gifts helped lessen the financial burden of the poor families.
The occasion was graced by the presence of the Member of Parliament of Kemaman Dato’ Ahmad Shabery Cheek who is also the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dato’ Hj Abu Bakar the State Assemblyman from Kemasek, Ir Tiong HC the chairman of IEM Kerteh, Mr Imai the Managing Director of Toyo Malaysia, Ir. Nazari from IEM, and other invited guests from Kerteh and Kuala Lumpur.
It was very touching to see the schoolchildren receive their gifts with joy and appreciation, and the hope is that more will be done to grow this initiative to regularly assist other poor schoolchildren statewide in Terengganu, and then countrywide.
