Saddened by the hardship faced by her fellow Sabahans, Daphne Iking has two crowdfunding initiatives going on to help marginalised families and to raise funds for medical supplies.
A child rights advocate, Iking was moved to tears after hearing how some babies were fed with condensed milk as families couldn’t afford to buy formula milk.
As such, she and her partner Niney Chong started ‘Humarap & Love for the Marginalized in Sabah’ to raise funds for these families.
She also has a second crowdfunding effort called ‘PPEs for Frontliners: An Effort by Humarap x Ministry of Marketing.Asia‘.
Humarap means hope in Kadazandusun.
“Everyone’s fighting their fight. But amidst this challenging Covid-19 situation, some people are fighting their most basic need – to eat. Many communities in Sabah right now are not able to provide for their families,” said Iking.
“We initially targeted RM20,000 for the marginalised families but surpassed the figure when social activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi and his Persatuan Untuk Anak Kita (PUAK) Payong organisation donated the full amount yesterday.
“We have extended the campaign as we are hearing more and more stories of how the marginalised families are suffering.
“We are also preparing food packs for them.”
She said her brothers are helping to coordinate the delivery of the aid.
Iking said Humarap has identified several non-government organisations and individuals who need help. They are Semporna Heroes, USM Lecturers (volunteers), Borneo Komrad, Iskul Sama DiLaut Omadal (Omadal Bajau Laut School) and Ken Chung.
Meanwhile, Iking said she is also hoping to raise RM20,000 to buy personal protective equipment for the frontliners in Sabah, who are in desperate need for them.
Her mother used to be a nurse at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Kota Kinabalu before becoming a nursing tutor. Several of her aunts were also nurses which is why she has a soft spot for front liners.
“Recently, a video made its round of front liners using substandard PPEs. They were drenched in sweat,” said Iking.
“We have a long way to go as we have raised less than RM4,000.
“There have also been appeals for people to help sew some PPEs – just like what happened in the early days of the Movement Control Order. That’s how far we have fallen. We are back to square one.”
She added kitafund has generously agreed to waive the administrative fee for the crowdfunding for medical supplies.
Iking is not the only prominent Sabahan to help the state.
Last week, former Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum and friends raised nearly RM300,000 to purchase one mobile negative pressure isolation chamber and 20 units of powered air-purifying respirators (PAPR).
He hopes to raise another RM500,000 for another mobile negative pressure isolation chamber and 40 PAPR units.
Here’s the round-up of The News Normal today.
AGC SAYS HEALTH MINISTRY DID NOT GIVE MINISTER QUARANTINE FORMS
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Mohd Khairuddin Aman can rest easy as no further action will be taken against him for allegedly breaking quarantine after returning from Turkey on July 7.
Police revealed the Attorney-General’s Chambers classified the case as “No Further Action” as the minister was not given the mandatory Annex 14b form required under Section 15(1) of the Prevention And Control Of Infectious Disease Act 1988 (Act 342).
Will investigations be carried to find out who in the Health Ministry failed to uphold their duties and if there were similar cases involving others that escaped the media’s radar?
OCM APPROVES SECOND ROUND OF COVID-19 FUNDING
The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) Trust Management Committee, chaired by Tan Sri Norza Zakaria, approved a second Covid-19 fund of RM300,000.
National Sports Associations (NSAs) will be able to apply for the fund from tomorrow with monies expected to be disbursed by the first week of November.
Funding will be capped at RM10,000 for OCM’s ordinary members and RM5,000 for associate members.
The fund is aimed at assisting NSAs with administrative expenses such as office rentals, salaries and allowances of its employees, coaches and athletes.
The first fund on April 17 April also totalling RM300,000, benefited 23 ordinary members and seven associate members.
NO ESPORTS IN SCHOOLS UNTIL NEXT YEAR
Esports Kuala Lumpur Association (ESKL) and the Federal Territory Sports Council (FTSC) have postponed plans to introduce eSports in schools until 2021.
It was supposed to start at the beginning of the school year.
Football games FIFA20 and PES and Formula 1 are the two main genres to be promoted in schools.
HELL WITHIN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATIONS STEMS FROM STATE GOVERNMENTS
With the current economic decline, state governments should rethink their sports sponsorship strategy – changing it from a purely spending exercise into a profit-making operation.
The state governments are not only sponsoring the football association. They are also sponsoring other sports in the state.
The best solution is to collectively pool the commercial rights of all state sports associations and have a state government-linked company to manage those rights via sponsorship sales, licensing marketing, merchandising and many other sports marketing initiatives.