Today I visited a school in Gelang Patah as part of a Joint Community Services Programme organised by the Malaysian Red Crescent Community Services in conjunction with KFC, Nestle, The Lost Food Project, Sunway Big Box, Sunway Citrine, and Yayasan Raja Zarith Sofia Negeri Johor. The school is SK Ladang Pendas and the MRC have a long-standing association with this school which educates the Orang Asli children in the local area.
Today the children were celebrating a group birthday and their special treat was a lunchbox from KFC and a cup of Milo from Nestle. KFC and Nestle are major sponsors of the MRC and their products are top of the list of requests from children. The Yayasan Raja Zarith Sofiah Negeri Johor donated some much needed re-usable face masks to the school as well, although I think it was a bit tough on the children asking them to wear the masks just when they had a box of KFC on their desks!
The birthday children received an additional gift today from YB Dato Mohd Rashidi bin Hj Mood Noh (Deputy Chairman, National Committee for Health & Community Services).
As well as providing treats for the children, today some 60 Orang Asli families received food packages to help them through this difficult time. The Lost Food Project has branched out from Kuala Lumpur and now have a branch in Johor Bahru, and they helped coordinate with Sunway to provide rice for this occasion. Four of the selected families received their food packages in a special presentation ceremony today.
The SK Landang Pendas school educates 79 children in a colourful green environment. They even learn how to use hydroponics in cultivation, and all the recent rain highlighted the difficulties of conventional gardening. At the entrance to the school is a pond area which was built with sponsorship from MRC and KFC in 2016, and shows the variety of different projects which each help to enrich the lives of these children.
Events such as this are the mainstay of work of the Malaysian Red Crescent, and their expertise means they can help coordinate the activities of other charitable organisations to produce a more efficient enterprise. The collaboration with the Lost Food Project today is a good example of such an interaction.
Click here to see more about the activities of the Malaysian Red Crescent.
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