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Fun Walk brings ray of light for the visually impaired

28 September 2013

6 min read

FUN WALK BRINGS RAY OF LIGHT FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
- Over 21,000 Maybankers in Global CR Day initiatives

 

Over 21,000 Maybankers worldwide today participated in the fourth annual Maybank Global CR Day involving themselves in some 90 community initiatives. The Global CR Day reinforces Maybank’s commitment to being a responsible global corporate citizen, helping deliver a sustainable future for the countries where the Bank operates.

 

In Kuala Lumpur, Maybank President & CEO, Datuk Abdul Farid Alias joined the Community Financial Services (CFS) division in its “Hand-in-Hand Charity Walk for the Blind with Friends”. The 3 km fun walk saw participants, some with visually challenged “buddies”, walk around Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan P.Ramlee. Together with him were Maybank Deputy President & Head, Community Financial Services, Datuk Lim Hong Tat, as well as about 1,300 participants and 40 school children from Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas (Cacat Penglihatan) Setapak.

 

Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said that 2013 will set another record in the number of employees who have volunteered to participate in this event.

 

“Our Global CR Day this year will mark another milestone for the Maybank Group. We not only have more participation from employees, but are continuing what we have done last year as our emphasis is on sustainable programmes that provide long term community benefits,” he said.

 

“Apart from demonstrating our commitment to being at the heart of the community, our aim is also to ensure the holistic development of our employees and the organisation,” he continued. “In fact, our employees are very much aligned to this approach as indicated in our employee engagement survey. Our results showed a favourable response rate of 83% from employees when asked whether our employee volunteerism programmes have encouraged employees to volunteer for community initiatives.”

 

This is the second year CFS has collaborated with the visually challenged community as it had previously organised fund raising activities and telematch events at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa with POCAM (Persatuan Orang-orang Cacat Anggota Malaysia), PERTIS (Persatuan Orang-orang Cacat Penglihatan Islam Malaysia) and SBM( Pertubuhan Orang Cacat Penglihatan Malaysia).

 

To ensure that these initiatives are sustainable and bring value to society, CFS had also organised awareness campaigns, motivational talks and invited blind masseurs to Menara Maybank to offer reflexology massage.

 

For this event, CFS has raised over RM32,000 from the participation fee of a minimum RM10 per person. The amount was topped-up with an additional RM20,000 by Maybank Foundation making the total amount collected to over RM52,000. The funds will be utilised to finance internal projects for the three selected integrated schools, three special needs school and one NGO namely Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas Setapak, Wilayah Persekutan, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pendidikan Khas Terengganu, Sekolah Kebangsaan Dato Laksamana Raja Mahkota, Perak, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pendidikan Khas Seremban, Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor, Sekolah Kebangsaan Pendidikan Khas Princess Elizabeth, Johor, St Nicholas School, Penang and Persatuan Juru-Urut Orang Buta.

 

The Maybank Global CR Day is believed to be the biggest corporate responsibility (CR) initiative ever by Maybank Group globally and simultaneously in a day. It involves Maybank employees in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, New York, London, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, China, Bahrain and Papua New Guinea– coming together to reaffirm their commitment to social and community development.

 

With the theme “Connecting Global Communities” this year’s Maybank Global CR Day will see employees continuing to work in various projects relating to environmental conservation, education, hospitals, special children, the visually and physically challenged, single mothers, orphans and senior citizens.

 

The Maybank Global CR Day is an extension of the Group’s Cahaya Kasih employee volunteerism programme, which was initiated in 2006 for employees to engage directly with the community through its regional and overseas offices.

 

This year, like in 2012, the Maybank Foundation has provided an additional grant of RM20,000 each to the 20 top CR initiatives undertaken by Maybank employees throughout its global network. This is in addition to the normal funding allocated by the Bank for each department. The premise behind this is to fund sustainable programmes that can benefit the community on a longer term basis.

 

Other programmes will involve blood donation drive and health talks, supporting handicraft production by the disabled, income generating programmes for indigenous peoples, clean-up of forests and rivers as well as educational activities for children from adopted homes and welfare organisations.

 

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