Sunday, February 24, 2008
Penang Friends Carnival
This was my brainchild. A carnival that groups 8 deserving NGOs in a wholesome community food, games and entertaiment in aid of their services to the needy. We had the celebrities, corporate figures and community leaders to join hand in selling coupons to raise fund for the NGOs.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Community Link Launch - 12 May 2007
CIMB Community Link is one of CIMB Group's key Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. It is a unique program aimed at forging closer ties with the local communities served by CIMB Bank and CIMB Islamic branches. The programme empowers customers to propose initiatives or social causes that will enhance the lives of those within the community. These causes will then be funded by the Bank. The success of Community Link hinges on branch managers working closely with customers to identify causes important to their community. A fund exclusively for the cause is then set up. Every time customers conduct a transaction at the branch, the Bank will contribute a portion of its monies to the fund. The more transactions and business activities there are at the branches, the quicker the target will be reached. A mock thermometer located at the electronic banking centre of the branch will track the progress of the funds. When targets are reached, the fund is distributed accordingly. CIMB Community Link is an on-going project. When a project is completed, the community can subsequently nominate a next worthy cause.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Community Link Projects in 2007
2007 has been a very rewarding and satisfing year for me. As the Head of CSR, I was given a free hand to recommend community projects that are sustainable for deserving people group nationwide. Thinking out of the box and coming up with creative ideas has always been my forte but seeing how my ideas when implemented have impacted lives is beyond words.
Let me introduce a handful of some of the more interesting community projects I carried out last year.
Let me introduce a handful of some of the more interesting community projects I carried out last year.
Community Link TVC
This is a 90's Community Link TVC launched in conjunction with the Malaysia's 50th year of Independence in 2007. It was also the first corporate TVC featuring CSR projects by any multinationals. It was a proud moment for me when my community projects are showcased and made into the Bank's corporate TVC. I made it big time.
I uploaded the Cantonese version, which I feel has a better script.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Music by the deaf
(Rose (left) signing to the deaf)When I first got involved with the deaf community, I was determined to show the world what they don't know about the deaf people and their abilities. I came up with the idea of deaf people from all races, age and social status to have a chance to be musicians and percussionists.
I explored my initial thoughts with the Hands Percussions, a local cultural performance art troupe. I wanted the world the listen and appreciate music played by deaf people. To many this attempt was unrealistic mainly because the deaf cannot hear what they play and therefore it will be very difficult to teach them tempo, rhythm and beat, etc. This was challenging both to this deaf group which has no music or stage performance background and the Hands Percussions team which has no experience dealing with a physically disable group and did not understand sign language, then. Moreover, not all deaf people in the group understand sign language. None of them showed any enthusiastic in the beginning.
I was motivated. I wanted to send a powerful message to the world that physically disable people such as the deaf group from Malaysia can overcome their physical disability and be successful percussionists and musicians if given a chance.
In November 2007, after only 5 months after forming the 'Deaf Beat', I pitched the group to perform their first international (charity) performance before a crowd of more than 1,000 hoteliers, corporates and VIPs during the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards night 2007-2008. The audience was overhelmed and were literally speechless over the Deaf Beat outstanding performance. Donations flowed and reached closed to RM300 thousands mark over a single night. Proceeds from the donations will be partly use to stage their first concert in KLCC in May 2008.
It was a proud moment for me. Deaf Beat has broken the silence in deaf community forever although it may seem unrealistic at first. Sometimes all we need is to keep focus and move forward. Watch out for their first concert in May 2008.Youth2 : Heart-felt rhythm
Friday, February 15, 2008
Giving Wheel Chair Users a Voice
The Star, Living
Saturday March 1, 2008
China Press, Education
Thursday August 23, 2007
Saturday March 1, 2008
A job to call their own
Chinese radio station AI FM and CIMB have paved the way for the disabled to become deejays.
By SHOBA MANO
One of the biggest challenges facing the disabled is their integration into society.
As Thomas Yeoh, one of the 12 disabled students who have completed a speech training course at the Voice Academy in Kuala Lumpur, says, "People sometimes donate money, wheelchairs and hearing aids, but what we really need are jobs.
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Loving work: Pua Ghin Chu, 25, (centre) Low Mee Li, 40 and Yeoh Kee Soon, 45, (left) work as deejays at AI FM. |
"Nobody wants to live off charity the rest of his life. Holding a job gives us a sense of pride, self-worth and purpose," says the 45-year-old, who has been wheelchair-bound for the last two years because of muscular dystrophy.
"I worked as a draughtsman until I became confined to a wheelchair. So now I have to learn other skills to obtain a job that I can do in spite of my disability," says Yeoh, who along with course mates Ivy Pua Ghin Chu, Low Mee Li, 32, and BGF director Sia Siew Chin, 46, have been offered stints as deejays with RTM's Chinese radio station AI FM.
Pua, a care and employment co-ordinator at Beautiful Gates Foundation for the Disabled (BGF) in Petaling Jaya, says the speech training course was conducted in Mandarin and focused on pronunciation and how to use voice more effectively.
Pua became disabled at 16, after surgery to remove a blood clot from her spine.
"Most physical disabilities do not affect a person's mental faculties. Yet, a high percentage of the disabled are uneducated due to society's poor acceptance of them, especially in schools.
"The infrastructure in schools is also not disabled-friendly. Moreover, many teachers and students don't understand the difficulties faced by the disabled or don't treat them with respect, which is why a large number drop out. The more educated members of the disabled community are usually those who became disabled later in life, after having obtained their tertiary education," Pua points out.
Pua and her three compatriots will helm a programme for the disabled in April, thanks to an initiative by CIMB Bank Berhad, which sponsored their course and approached AI FM to broach the idea.
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Undergoing voice training. |
They recently hosted two Chinese New Year 2008 Specials on NTV7's Chinese language programme called Finding Angels.
"The bank doesn't just hand over sponsorship money, but believes in working with its beneficiaries to obtain the expected results,'' says CIMB head of Community Link and CIMB Elements, Johnny Yong.
"This involves a lot of time and commitment. For instance, we had to convince the Voice Academy to enrol disabled students. We also spent a lot of time encouraging the disabled to take the course."
According to AI FM programme manager, Ng Leng Leng, 40, the station pondered over the idea of disabled deejays after being approached by the bank.
"It's the first time we are engaging disabled deejays. When I attended the graduation ceremony at Voice Academy, I heard Sia saying she wanted the public to know how the disabled felt, and not what the public believed they felt.
"Sia also said the disabled are victims of social prejudice rather than their disabilities. I was so moved by what she had said that I decided to have a radio programme by the disabled, for the disabled," recalls Ng.
The programme format will include sharing diary entries and daily experiences. The disabled will be encouraged to submit short stories within 100 words. The winning entry will be read on air and receive a prize sponsored by CIMB.
"We will also discuss some basic dos and don'ts that the able-bodied can observe when interacting with the disabled. For example, one should not immediately lift a disabled person who has fallen down,'' says Thomas.
"He should first squat and ask if the fallen person is hurt and what help he requires. Be sensitive to the type of disability when attempting to help the person. Don't force a person with cerebral palsy to hold a pen, because he is not able to do so. We will also discuss the proper way to push a wheelchair, especially when going up an escalator or down a steep ramp," says Thomas.
Ng says the station is excited about the show but notes that the facilities in their own building are not disabled-friendly.
"We have to carry the disabled deejays over one flight of stairs to the broadcasting room, which does not comfortably accommodate wheelchairs. The deejays are also not able to reach all the switches and still need able-bodied people to help them with the console. These are real-life problems, which the disabled can easily overcome if the infrastructure is built to suit them," she says.
Ng thinks it's a shame the disabled are being deprived of jobs they can quite easily do simply because of infrastructural problems. She hopes other companies, too, will think about the issue and consider providing employment opportunities for the disabled.
China Press, Education
Thursday August 23, 2007
The following TV programme features a community project I initiated a year ago with Beautiful Gate and The Voice Academy. The aim is to give a voice to the disable community. This is also the first of its kind community project for the disable people. Understanding the needs of the disable community, I wanted to provide them a platform to promote a caring society for the disbale comminity spearheaded by the NGOs for the disable such as Beautiful Gate as well as other disable avocacy groups.
Thus, I sponsored 12 disbale people for a broadcasting course in The Voice Academy. Hopefully, they will be radio DJs and TV programme hosts one day. After much lobbying, NTV7 and Ai FM agreed to offer some of them contract positions as radio DJs and TV programme hosts.
NTV7 Finding Angels Chinese New Year Special - Part 1
I believe by empowering the disable with media roles in broadcasting will better help them to voice their predicaments and their needs to the govenment and the community. This is my blue ocean synergy for CSR. I also strategise their first programme during the Chinese New Year where most people are in their own homes or their relative homes watching TV programmes.
Back To School Programme for 100 Children
The future lies in the hands of our younger generations and education forms an important part of their development. However, basic school necessities such as bags, shoes, books and uniforms require money that some Kadasandusun families living in the interior of Sabah could ill-afford.
Learning of their plight, I supported the Buddist Tzu Chi Merit Society of Malaysia New Sprout project for disadvantaged school children from the Seventh Day Advetist Sinar Harapan hostel in Kuilu, Tamparuli Sabah. We equipt 100 Kadasandusun secondary school children with back-to-school supplies that help pave the way for their academic pursuit.
This is a very personal to me. This is a cross-culture, inter-faith CSR project that I initiated to show that Malaysia is indeed a caring society and there are no boundaries for us when it comes to providing education for underprivillaged children.
The guardians of the children bording in the hostel of this project is a group of Chinese Buddist formerly from Malacca, now based in Kota Kinabalu. The beneficiaries are Kadazanduzun children from a Christian orpahnage. They have nothing in common except being Malaysians.
I managed to convince NTV 7 production to go to Kota Kinabalu and cover the Bank's CSR project with the hope to increase NTV 7 Finding Angels viewership base in East Malaysia. This is Finding Angels first programme hosted in East Malaysia. I also managed to get the Bank's staff to regularly visit the hostel on a voluntary basis.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
CIMB Foundation Launch
This was my last piece of strategic planning and intergrated communication in CIMB. I'm proud of our heritage. I took achieves from past and present work.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Community Link Projects Video
This Community Link Volunteer Recruitment Video features real live footages of showcase community projects I did nationwide in 2007. Today, we have more than 200 volunteers trained and certified as crisis relief medical helpers. This video was scripted and directored by me.
Power Root Beverages TVCs
This Ali Tea 60's TVC was scripted and director by me. I consider my best TVC so far. I was shot in 24 hours round-the-clock in 4 locations with more than 30 crew members and 20 talents.
Lately, I was asked by a potential hiring manager to upload more variety of my past TVCs. So I decided to add Nnergy 30's TVC made in blue screen using Computer Graphics and 3D Animation.
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