SUNGAI PETANI, 13 April 2019– For the fourth year running, UMW Group organised the Kembara MSAM-UMW 2019 from 13 to 15 April in conjunction with Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) 2019, to be held from 19 to 25 April in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
20 four-wheel-drive convoy of 40 UMW Community Champions (volunteers) embarked on a 135-kilometre journey from Sungai Petani to reach out to three villages in Sik and Baling. Apart from creating awareness of MSAM 2019 to the public in the surrounding areas, the Kembara MSAM-UMW also aimed at helping the underprivileged community in the villages visited. The donation packs, which consisted of sundry items such as rice, cooking oil, flour and sugar among other items were distributed to selected asnaf families. To help improve the living conditions of some of these families, the volunteers and the villagers also came together for a gotong-royong to clean and conduct repair works at their houses.
Upon flag-off, the convoy made their way to Kampung Kerawai, Sik to distribute the donation packs and to work on the houses of two asnaf families. On the second day, 90 underprivileged families from Kampung Bukit Iboi, Baling received donation packs from the volunteers while a gotong-royong was held to upgrade the living conditions of three asnaf families. The last leg of the programme involved an orphanage in Kampung Jerai Baru, Baling in which basic necessities were handed out to 19 residents of Pusat Kebajikan Rumah Anak-Anak Yatim dan Miskin Al-Taqwa. All in, a total of 400 people benefitted from the three-day programme.
The Kembara MSAM-UMW 2019 convoy was flagged off by Dato’ Abdul Rahman Ahmad, President & Group Chief Executive of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Badrul Feisal Abdul Rahim, President & Group CEO of UMW Holdings Berhad and a Kedah state representative at Amanjaya Mall, Sungai Petani, Kedah.
As an organisation with its heritage stretching back more than 100 years, the UMW Group remains indebted to the communities in which it operates for supporting its continued success. The above programme is part of the Group’s sustainability strategy of nurturing the community and society.