Loving Hand Team Leader Joenn Goh (right) and two others in a photo.
KUCHING: Magnum Corporation advocates the spirit of caring and sharing. One of the many corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives which started in 2012 involves the participation of its employees, said a press release yesterday.
This programme ‘I Can See Clearly Now (ICSCN)’ is implemented under MyMagnum, an employees’ volunteer programme whereby our employees will help to carry out an eye health awareness campaign providing eye-check and awareness talk for primary school children and provide prescriptive spectacles for those who can’t afford them. What was initially a one team campaign which started in the Klang Valley has now turned into a nationwide programme implemented by 14 Teams following the positive response from the students, parents, schools and teachers.
The Teams will identify schools and welfare homes, collaborate with optical partners, raise funds by organising various fund raising activities like Zumba Dance, Charity Dinners, Badminton & Bowling tournaments, organise Local Day trips, Selling healthy homemade nuts & cookies, sell popular delicacies from other States, harvesting vegetables and sell at markets, etc.,conduct the eye-screenings in the Schools and organise awareness talksfor the young students.
To date with ICSCN, MyMagnum has successfully raised RM836,947 nationwide, screened 55,622 children and contributed 10,884 spectacles to the primary school children from 210primary schools and 19 welfare homes across the country.
In Sarawak, one of the 14 MyMagnum Teams, Magnum Loving Hand visited SK Pujut Corner, Miri, SK Kidurong 1, Bintulu, SJK Chung Hua No.1, Bintulu, SJK Uk Daik, Sibu, SK Tanjung Bijat, Sri Aman, SK Gran Stumbin, Sri Aman, , SJK Chung Hua Bt.10 Kuching, SK Atas Singai, Bau Kuching and carried out eye screening tests for 5700 students in total.
Of which,520 young children or 9.2% of eight schools screened were underprivileged children who needed corrective spectacles. According to the Segamat Paediatric Eye Disease Study (completed in 2017) led by the late Dr Joseph Alagaratnam from the Health Ministry and Southeast Asia Community Observatory under Monash University Malaysia in Segamat, Johor revealed that 1 in 10 children in Malaysia has an undiagnosed vision problem that can lead to chronic headaches and learning difficulties. This eye problem if left untreated, could lead to permanent visual impairment and even blindness.
“The study gave us more conviction to continue ICSCN as we believe this programme is both impactful and sustainable.
With proper eye care, the school children can prevent serious medical condition as well as help those who need assistance to focus in learning and have a chance for a brighter future ahead of them.
We are happy to see that ICSCN has reached out to many school children and we are very proud of our employees and the amount of effort they have put in helping the children. I am indeed proud to see our MagnumCares spirit shine brightly amongst our employees and Magnum will continue to standby our people to support them in carrying out good and worthy causes” said Dato’ Lawrence Lim Swee Lin, CEO of Magnum Corporation Sdn Bhd in the press release.
Head of Magnum Group CSR, Beh Swan Swan explained, “We all know that a good education foundation is important for future learning and it is essential to ensure that something as fundamental as having a good and corrected eye sight is made aware and available to the children.
If the children cannot see clearly in the classrooms, they will lose interest in their studies and hence impact their academic performance. More so if they are tall students who are often seated at the back of the classes. All these will then lead to wrongly labelling these children as slow learners.”
Not forgetting the enormous satisfaction amongst the employees who could see how their effort can truly make a difference not only to these children’s well-being, but also in their academic performance as well as there are many success stories shared by the teachers on the children’s academic improvements following their corrected vision. Beh further added, “At Magnum, we believe that Nobody can do Everything but Everybody can do Something. We continuously look out for avenues to bring on board like-minded Partners who want to do good and help the underserved communityin a meaningful and sustainable manner.” For more information, please visit www.magnumcares.my or www.facebook.com/magnumcares For enquiries, kindly contact Joenn at 016-8890100 or joenngoh@ magnum.my, the press release concluded.
