Over 14,000 families receive food aid

(From third left) Mohamed Rafique and Zainal Abidin during the distribution of essential food packs in Setiu, Terengganu.

Maybank Islamic Bhd is distributing essential food packs to 14,645 families in Malaysia and nine other Asean countries.

The project organised in conjunction with Ramadan is being carried out through the bank’s flagship corporate responsibility programme, Regional Ramadhan Relief.

The distribution has begun in all Asean locations but because of the location of some of the remote villages, some families will only receive their food boxes later.

To kick off the initiative this year in Malaysia, a symbolic food box presentation ceremony took place in a fishing village in Setiu, Terengganu, where 150 families received their boxes.

Present at the event were Maybank Islamic chief executive officer Datuk Mohamed Rafique Merican, chairman Zainal Abidin Jamal, Islamic Relief Malaysia (IRM) chairman Prof Dr Azni Idris and IRM chief executive officer Zairul Shahfudin Zainal Abidin.

IRM is the bank’s implementing partner for the initiative.

With an allocation of RM2.7mil this year, the programme will help more than 8,000 families in Malaysia while the remaining families are in Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei and the Rohingya refugees (Myanmar) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

To date, the community programme which was initiated in 2013, has allocated funds of more than RM10mil and benefited over 110,000 underprivileged families comprising single mothers, disabled persons, orphans, the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.

Mohamed Rafique said the programme was aligned to its humanising financial services mission across its operations to ease the burden of less fortunate families.

“We are grateful as this is our seventh year running this programme, which has benefited not only the underprivileged in Malaysia but also those in nine other Asean countries,” he added.

The food supplies given comprise basic necessities such as rice, cooking oil, flour, sugar and other essential food items that are normally needed in the fasting month.

“The underprivileged deserve assistance such as this so that their well-being is not neglected. We are thankful that our contributions have managed to ease their burden,” said Mohamed Rafique.

He added that Maybank Islamic was not only committed to its corporate responsibility programmes, which are activated throughout the year, but would continue to seek better ways to elevate the economic level of the communities where the bank operates.

Maybank Islamic’s other corporate responsibility programmes in the pipeline for 2019 include an education fund for students, empowering the mualaf (new converts) community programme, clean water and sanitation programme, foster family programme with urban poor families and sponsorship of heart surgeries for young children.