YKKRM Newsletter December 2020 by Yasmin Yusof

NEWSLETTER YAYASAN KELAB-KELAB ROTARY MALAYSIA OCT - DEC 2020 | 9TH EDITION

ABOUT YAYASAN KELAB-KELAB ROTARY MALAYSIA The idea of a Rotary District 330 Foundation was initiated by District Governor Dr. Philbert S S Chin of the Rotary Club of Singapore in 1983/84. It was incorporated as a company limited by share capital on 24 September 1985. When District 330 was split by Rotary International into two districts – D3300 and D3310, Rotary District 330 Foundation was split into Rotary Foundation Singapore and Rotary Foundation Malaysia. On 14 November 1991 Rotary Foundation Malaysia (ROTAFOM) was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee to serve all Rotary Clubs in Malaysia. (including Malaysian Rotary Clubs in District D3310). The Rotary Clubs in Singapore formed the Foundation of Rotary Clubs (Singapore) Ltd. On 12 December 1997 Rotary Foundation Malaysia was renamed Yayasan Kelab-Kelab Rotary Malaysia.

VISION To further the object of Rotary by supporting and supplementing the efforts of Rotary Clubs in Malaysia to better serve the community in poverty alleviation, education, health, humanitarian and disaster relief programs.

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MISSION To be a foundation known to and supported by all Rotarians and Rotary Clubs in Malaysia. To support and supplement the funding needs of the district and Rotary clubs in their projects and activities. To participate in humanitarian and educational projects that will enhance the public image of Rotary in Malaysia.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF YKKRM

DISTRICT 3310

DISTRICT 3300

PDG Datuk Zainie Abdul Aucasa

PDG Dr Paul CK Lee

Publication

PDG Datuk Zainie Abdul Aucasa

DGN Dr Krishna Kumar

Support Grant

PDG Philip Chong

PAG Ananda Pillai

Project Partnership

PP Jeremy Tiong (Observer)

IPDG Lioh Cheng Lim

Youth Activities

PP Foo Kok Hing

DG Teoh Kwan Swee

Disaster Relief

PP Ng Yaw Hua

DGE Dato' Bindi Rajasegaran

Appreciation & Recognition

DGE Dolly Yeap

PDG Dr Paul CK Lee

Public Relations, Publicity, Homepage

PDG Andre Suharto (Observer)

PDG Leslie Salehuddin

Coordinators & Malam Yayasan

PP Abbas Ezzi

PDG Kirenjit Kaur

Bursary Program

PDG Philip Chong

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MRKKY TUOBA

Fundraising

PAST DISTRICT GOVERNOR DR PAUL CK LEE Chairman, Yayasan KelabKelab Rotary Malaysia

Dear friends, As the new Chairman of our Yayasan (YKKRM), I am concerned when I reviewed the financial position of our YKKRM. We are looking at a very gross budget over-run and the weak fundraising. I thus had to take a very bold and unpleasant stand to temporarily suspend our grants. Allow me to share with you the reasons. I hope we all will appreciate the problems and will “buy-in” to support the actions to bring our Yayasan forward. We had an over-expenditure (deficit) of about RM185,000 in the last year. This may be because we did not have a “Proposed Budget” at the beginning of the year to guide our expenditure. To prevent this from happening again, we will re-implement the “Proposed Budget”. Also, maybe due to Covid-19, we couldn’t organise our yearly Malam Yayasan where we usually increased our coffers through donations as JRF or Patrons etc. We had been so to say, just “spending”.

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But still, we responded to the call to help the poor during the Covid-19 pandemic. We donated more than RM300,000 towards assisting Covid-19 Food Aid programmes. Here, we must thank IPDG Lioh Cheng Lim for his very generous donation of RM200,000.

We have the Disaster Relief Grant which we may need to review. As Rotary District also has the same grant, it may be prudent to work with Rotary instead of duplicating the efforts.

We shall embark on soliciting not just individual Rotarian giving but also corporate giving

We also want to actively promote the new Community Assistance Grant as this grant assists in smaller projects and providing faster “return” of the donation from the Rotarians back to the club’s projects. It is also selffunding.

We surely would seek our two Rotary districts to increase their annual support from RM20,000 to RM35,000 each. After all, all money in the YKKRM have been used to assist Rotary districts and clubs like Youth, RYLA, Rotaract & Interact Assemblies and Support Grants. We shall embark on soliciting not just individual Rotarian giving but also corporate giving. In this we record with thanks the donation of RM200,000 from PDG Chew Ghim Bok who will be recognised as Major Patron Chair Circle Member with IPDG Lioh Cheng Lim. Whilst we are trying to sort out the finances of YKKRM, we are not able to meet freely to discuss and endorse the changes to the grant programmes due to MCO. We hope that we will be able to meet physically soon maybe in the first quarter of 2021 to discuss and confirm all the above so as to enable us to move forward.

In the meantime, we apologise that we just have to temporarily suspend our grant programmes. Best regards, PDG DR PAUL CK LEE

DONOR RECOGNITIONS OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 MAJOR PATRON CHAIR CIRCLE

PATRON

The recognition of all contributions of RM200,000.00

The recognition of all contributions of RM5,000.00

IPDG LIOH CHENG LIM RC Tampin, D3300

TAN SRI FRANCIS LAU

PDG CHEW GHIM BOK RC Bugis Junction, D3310

JAMIL RAIS FELLOW (JRF) The recognition of all contributions of RM2,500.00

PP DATUK DR. N. SUBRAMANIAN RC Utara Subang Jaya, D3300 PP RAMAKRISHNAN RAJOO RC Subang, D3300

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EGASSEM S'NAMRIAHC

On our yearly income, our total income from the contributions from the two district is only about RM40,000. With our fixed deposit interest, we get about RM70,000. This is barely enough just to support our current programmes. As we have actively publicised our YKKRM and our grants are getting more popular, more clubs are seeking partnership with YKKRM in their humanitarian service projects. As an example, on the Support Grant alone, we donate RM5,000 for each Support Grant approved. Thus, if we just approve 6 grants, we would have used up RM30,000 of our income. The Support Grant is an assistance to the clubs which we need to continue but maybe at a lower sum of RM2,000 instead of RM5,000 match for each grant.

RC BANDAR SUNGAI PETANI’S COVID-19 UNIVERSITY OUTREACH PROGRAM Through a Project Partnership with Yayasan KelabKelab Rotary Malaysia, Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani donated four (4) thermoscanners for use by students and staff at AIMST University. Bedong, Kedah.

Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani is also the sponsor Club for the Rotaract Club of AIMST University. 06 | OCTOBER • DECEMBER 2020

These thermoscanners that come ready with a stand and a platform for hand sanitisers, are stationed at entrances to common areas like the cafeteria.

A total of 250 low-income families in Sungai Petani and its surrounding areas including Bedong, Semeling, Sungai Batu, Lunas and Kulim recently received food and daily essentials worth RM20,000 to help them tide over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was carried out through a collaborative Project Partnership between Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani, Yayasan Kelab-Kelab Rotary Malaysia, and OCBC Al-Amin Bank Berhad. The joint special relief programme formed the third phase of RCBSP’s overall efforts in Covid-19 relief efforts. According to Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani President Sarkuru Govindasamy, the collaboration with OCBC Al-Amin Bank was key to further expand RCBSP’s third phase relief efforts. “We are grateful to OCBC Al-Amin through their Sungai Petani branch for their relentless support and commitment to assist the community amidst difficulties arising from Covid-19 as some

of the breadwinners of these families had lost their jobs. “We hope this brought some joy to the families. We are pleased to have done our little part to help our community and we hope this will help them tide through the current challenging period,” he said. Speaking on behalf of OCBC Bank, its Sungai Petani branch Senior Manager Ms Penny Tan Tsui Ping said the Bank continues to strive to be more involved in the localities in which it operates and to become even more engaged in the community, going beyond simply providing superior banking products and services to meeting the social needs of the people as well. “The social and economic effect of the global pandemic is hard for many and so we wanted to reach out to support our own community particularly those who have been deeply affected during this time of need. We are thankful to Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani for being part of this relief programme,” she said.

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SEITIVITCA MRKKY

RC BANDAR SUNGAI PETANI’S COVID19 COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVE

URBAN FARMING IN KAMPUNG BARU, KUALA LUMPUR – A YAYASAN SUPPORT GRANT PROJECT BY ROTARY CLUB OF KAMPUNG BARU CITY CENTRE LAMAN ULAMAN ROTARY KAMPUNG BARU This is a Rotary Club of Kampung Baru City Centre initiative with Rotary Club of Kampung Gelam, Singapore (District 3310), Yayasan Kelab Kelab Rotary Malaysia, Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur DiRaja and Lembaga Pentadbiran Malay Agricultural Settlement, Kampung Baru as our partners.

MAIN OBJECTIVE

Promote urban agriculture practices that can reduce malnutrition and food insecurity. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) defines urban

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agriculture as “the growing of plants and raising of animals within and around cities” to provide fresh food, generate employment, recycle waste and strengthen cities’ resilience to climate change.

TARGET GROUP

Community of Kampung Baru consisting of single mothers, grandmothers, retirees, young adults and youth (teenagers). Also included in the programme are the street boys from the Street Children School, Chow Kit. PROGRAMME OBJECTIVE Engaging with the community, young and old, through the setting up of an edible garden/community farm. Providing skill building techniques on planting and maintaining a vegetable garden and as an income generating business. Providing skills on making and marketing homemade food products. Organising activities in line with sustainable values. Utilising vacant/idle land for urban farming. END RESULT Personal development Wellness. Environmental management Economic development.

We managed to harvest 21 kg of green chillies and about 8 kg of chilli padi.

THE PROGRAMME Hands-on preparation for fertigation (injection of fertilizers into an irrigation system) for growing chillies Planting using recycled materials. Building raised beds for planting herbs and vegetables Rainwater harvesting Making of compost boxes and composting food and garden waste Permaculture (an ecologically sound way of living by efficient use of resources). Rearing of stingless bees Aquaponics (growing plants in water that has been used to cultivate aquatic organisms). Hydroponics (growing plants without soil). We started our programme in September 2020, and then had about 3 weeks break due to the Movement Control Order. We restarted the programme in November and then came the rainy season. We managed to harvest 21 kg of green chillies and about 8 kg of chilli padi. Our programme is not over yet.

Due to SOP and MCO, fifty people participated in the programme to date, scattered over 12 Sundays so as not to crowd the place. The programme not only brought the community together, but also created a different perception of the street children who were very helpful and polite. It also brought fellow Rotarians from other clubs contributing and coming to the garden to lend a hand.

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RC SRI PETALING’S PROJECT PARTNERSHIP FOR ASSISTANCE TO IQ70+

Rotary Club of Sri Petaling, through a Project Partnership with Kelab-Kelab Rotary Malaysia, raised RM35,400 to provide assistance to IQ70+ Persatuan Kebajikan Kanak Kanak Terencat Akal Malaysia. The centre which caters to about 70 mentally challenged children and youth was in dire need of assistance. They are facing financial difficulties to sustain their basic operations as their usual channels of public donations have been greatly reduced during the Covid19 pandemic.

Besides the cash donations, RC Sri Petaling also received donated items like 28 cans of Isomil Milk powder from a group of ex-Rotaractors and 10 cartons of Malt Milk sponsored by Nestle Malaysia. With the cash received, RC Sri Petaling purchased monthly necessities for the centre like diapers, Milo, rice, cooking oil, bleach, sardines, baked beans and milk powder. The items were donated to the centre during 2 visits by club members on 22 November 2020 and 20 December 2020.

RCSP provided assistance to IQ70+ Persatuan Kebajikan Kanak Kanak Terencat Akal Malaysia. 10 | OCTOBER • DECEMBER 2020

A Yayasan Disaster Relief Grant RM5,000.00 was given to Rotary Clubs in Sabah for Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), mostly face shields and face masks, to be distributed to Ministry of Health frontliners in collaboration with Mercy Malaysia, Sabah. Through the initiatives of the two Assistant Governors in Kota Kinabalu, namely AG Woo

Soo Poh and AG Phang Ah Seng, a further sum of RM11,000.00 was raised from the Rotary clubs in Sabah for PPEs and donations in kind were also received from local donors. The items were handed over in November to the Sabah Health Director, Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.

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SEITIVITCA MRKKY

D3310 DISASTER RELIEF GRANT FOR COVID-19

FOR TODAY FOR TOMORROW FOR DOING GOOD IN THE WORLD

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Thank you to all who have contributed articles and photos. If you wish to share your stories and projects undertaken with YKKRM, please email them to drkrishna.pushpa@gmail.com. Do share our projects of doing good in the world. DGN Dr Krishna Kumar District 3300

Design: Rtn Yasmin Yusof, District 3300