GREAT Heart Charity Association’s (GHCA) Covid-19 Response and Relief (CRR) Aid is giving assistance in various ways to those affected by the pandemic.
Launched in July, the programme supports four projects: the Family Care Support, Medical Equipment Donation, Community Disinfection Service and Condolence Aid.
GHCA co-founder and managing director Ric See said CRR Aid had benefitted individuals and the community at large.
“We have been helping families affected by the pandemic since the movement control order last year.
“When people in need raised the white flag a few months ago, Great Heart Charity Relief Aid 2.0 was introduced as a part of CRR’s key project to assist these families and individuals.
“We received 416 applications online and after assessing their background, 357 were selected for the programme,” he elaborated, adding that the applicants received RM200 each.
“However, we found that 20% of the cases required continuous support because some industries were still affected by the lockdown and individuals in these industries could not recover within a short period of time.
“So we chose to help them for three to six months, depending on their situation, to keep them from reverting to hardcore poor.
“We received applications from both B40 and M40 groups,” he added.
Great Heart Charity Relief Aid 2.0 is part of the Family Care Support Project available in Klang Valley and Melaka.
Under the Medical Equipment Donation Project, GHCA donated RM500,000 worth of personal protection equipment, oxygen concentrator and other equipment to six hospitals in the Klang Valley.
“On the Community Disinfection Service Project, we collaborated with voluntary groups in different areas to provide disinfection services to owners of premises who applied, be it a shoplot, restaurant or a public area,” said See.
The team based in Kota Kemuning also works with relevant authorities and stakeholders to disinfect areas that are found to be Covid-19 hotspots.
“To date, we have disinfected more than 400 premises,” he said, adding that this service was only available in selected areas, namely Klang, Jenjarom, Subang, Bandar Utama and Balakong.
For the Condolence Aid project, open to applicants nationwide, GCHA gave a one-off payment of RM500 to families who had lost their loved ones to Covid-19.
“As long as the applicant comes from the B40 group, we will give the monetary contribution.
“Funeral ceremonies can be costly and some families may have lost the sole breadwinner. It’s also heartbreaking when families cannot afford bereavement care.
“While RM500 may not seem like much to many of us, it may help B40 families cover at least a month’s worth of groceries,” See said.
Fundraising for these projects is a joint effort with its sister non-governmental organisations and other partners.
“We actively seek public funding and donations from corporate sectors. We are glad our donors have been supporting our causes.
“Moving forward, we are looking at expanding this aid into more states,” he concluded.
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