SHAH
ALAM 3 APRIL 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic forces families to
embrace change in their daily routine as schools, non-essential businesses and
social events are effectively put on hold. In recognising the situation, Canon
Marketing (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. partnered with Taylor’s Education
Group to deploy an emotional well-being module to help the B40
children cope with this change.
While some families are more equipped to cope
with the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed by the government since 18th
March, many B40 families are struggling to make ends meet with the potential loss
of their income.
As a result, children may be affected by the sudden change in
their routine.
This is the second jointly organised programme
between Canon and Taylor’s, following their first successful partnership in
August 2019 that benefitted 35 children from the B40 community. Realising that
the MCO may impact the livelihood of many B40 families,
Canon reached out to
Taylor’s and donated items of necessity to 45 families from the Program
Perumahan Rakyat (PPR), or People’s Housing Project in the Lembah Pantai
area, which has been identified as one of the COVID-19 ‘red zones’.
“Our hearts go out to these children during this
challenging time. We are aware of their predicament as their parents are badly
affected by this MCO because most of them are running small businesses,” said
Andrew Koh, President & CEO of Canon Marketing Malaysia.
Andrew explained that Canon responded to the MCO
by connecting with Taylor’s as they have previously supported the vulnerable
B40 families in the PPR communities through entrepreneurship and emotional
wellbeing programmes.
Both parties deployed a programme donated by HumanKind
that is aimed at helping children cope with the sudden change by using an
expressive arts module.
Participants were instructed to use items found in
their home to construct a face that resembles their current emotion.
They
submitted in their photos and the public voted for their favourite entries through
a Facebook contest.
“We’ve been supporting these children for so
many years and it saddened us to see them struggling to cope with this sudden
change.
"We are grateful that this second partnership with Canon provided us
with the opportunity to support these children emotionally and to keep them
productive at home.
"They were very creative as we received many impressive
submissions,” said May Wong, Taylor’s Group Communications and Corporate Social
Responsibility Manager.
Through the competition jointly organised by
Taylor’s and Canon, 5 children walked away with RM200 worth of groceries and
stationaries each.
Another top 40 entrants were awarded RM100 worth of
groceries and stationaries per submission.
“It was my first time participating in a
competition like this, and I am very happy that many people voted for me”, said
Nur Qaireen Qisha bt Ahmad Shaidan of PPR Pantai Ria, one of the top 5 winners.
When asked about her creation, she said “It was challenging, but I let my instincts
and emotions guide me in creating the ‘face’ for the competition. I thought it
looked pretty funny at first but I liked it after taking many pictures of it.
I’m so glad people online liked it too and voted for me!” said the 9-year-old
gleefully.
Aside from helping the community, Canon believes
in using photos to tell a story and together with Taylor’s encouragement for
healthy expressions of emotions, hopefully, these vulnerable children can cope
better through this change.
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