SUNWAY EMPLOYEES SET UP FUND TO HELP THE GROUP'S FRONTLINERS

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 -- Sunway Group's employees have set up the #SunwayforGood Fund to help those in need, including their colleagues serving on the front lines, as well as those in the essential and critical services.

Deputy executive chairman Tan Sri Razman M Hashim said the fund was set up in collaboration with the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation with full consent and support of the senior management to collect donations from Sunway's employees.

He said contributions to the fund would be used to aid frontline healthcare workers and those in the essential and critical services across Sunway businesses, as well as the bottom 40 per cent of the household income group (B40) in the vicinity of Sunway townships nationwide who needed the most help during these trying times.

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“At the launch of the fund, more than RM800,000 was collected from hundreds of compassionate donors,” he said in a statement today.

Razman said to ensure the safety of frontliners and essential service workers, Sunway Group also provided a "StaySafe" pack consisted of masks, vitamin C and sanitizers to all frontline workers, including those who provide essential and critical services throughout the group.

"Sunway’s frontline staff includes healthcare workers at the Sunway Medical Centre in Sunway City, Kuala Lumpur and Sunway Medical Centre Velocity in Cheras, who have been working round-the-clock, zoo keepers who continue to tend to the animals at the Sunway Lagoon and Sunway Lost World of Tambun and hundreds of hotel staff across its various properties nationwide,” he said.

Also included in the group’s frontline staff are facility maintenance workers, as well as security officers and auxiliary policemen who continued their patrols to ensure the safety of Sunway townships and the communities, he said.

Razman said Sunway Group has also donated RM300,000 to the #SunwayforGood Aid Now programme that was designed for community relief efforts during times of crisis, particularly for the B40 community nationwide with priority given to those around Sunway townships in Selangor, Perak, Penang and Johor.

He said the programme is Sunway’s emergency relief programme and also involved Sunway employees providing physical assistance such as helping to clean affected areas after disasters.

“Previously, the programme reached out to the flood-stricken communities in Terengganu, Kelantan and Johor,” he said.

He said of the RM300,000 donated, RM100,000 was channeled to Tabung Prihatin YKN-JKM COVID 19 by Yayasan Kebajikan Negara (YKN), which is expected to benefit at least 12,000 beneficiaries in the initial stages, to shore up support for communities shaken by COVID-19.

“The contribution will be used to distribute dry groceries, including rice, flour, mee-hoon, canned sardines, condensed milk, biscuits and cooking oil. The food items can be kept for a longer period of time, and will be able to feed a family of three up to two weeks,” he said.

He said to disburse the rest of the funds, the group is also actively looking at possible collaborations with other non-governmental organisations and would roll out the next phase of its #SunwayforGood Aid Now programme to help the B40 community.

Razman said the RM300,000 contribution was committed as part of Sunway Group’s RM34 million contribution in total that would help 40,000 Malaysian beneficiaries amid the pandemic.

He said these includes RM1 million for the national COVID-19 Fund to aid unemployed COVID-19 patients, up to RM12 million from Sunway healthcare division to subsidise the cost of treatment for public patients at the Ministry of Health’s hospitals and University Malaya Medical Centre, and RM20 million worth of rent-free days to Sunway Malls’ non-essential retailers.

-- BERNAMA