1,290 families in the Klang Valley recently received aid from the Rotary Club of Petaling Jaya and OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad as part of their joint effort to help the community amidst the global Covid-19.

Rotary Club of Petaling Jaya President Ms Usha Gopalan (right) handing over the contribution to a representative of the families comprising refugees registered with United Nations, B40 groups and foreign workers who recently lost their daily wages.

The joint programme, the Covid-19 Emergency Disaster Relief project, targeted three groups that are not under the purview of the government’s Prihatin Package.

Rotary Club of Petaling Jaya members, together with the help of Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur DiRaja, distributed 4,300 masks, 6,450 kg of food supplies and 6,450 kg of rice to the 1,290 families comprising refugees registered with United Nations, those from B40 groups and those of foreign workers who recently lost their daily wages.

According to Rotary Club of Petaling Jaya President Ms Usha Gopalan, the collaboration with OCBC Bank was a natural one given its back-toback years of partnership in corporate social responsibility programmes.

“We are grateful to OCBC Bank, through their Bukit Damansara and Petaling Jaya branches, for their relentless support and commitment to assist the community during these trying times. We knew we could count on them as we did the years before on other meaningful projects, namely the Rotary Club’s annual Golden Child Project and the Back to School Project.

“Due to the Movement Control Order, about 8 of our Rotary Club Petaling Jaya members vigilantly embarked on the distribution of food and masks to these groups. It took us less than 3 weeks to plan, prepare and complete the distribution exercise. We are pleased to have done our little part to help our community and we hope this will help them strive through the current period,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of OCBC Bank, its Bukit Damansara branch Senior Manager Ms Chan Mayin 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 during this time of need. This is our third year partnering with Rotary Club of Petaling Jaya and we knew immediately how meaningful an undertaking this would be,” she said.