COVID-19 Protection and Prevention for Underserved Refugees

Refugee communities in Malaysia were severely affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns. Not only were they not able to earn a living, they had no means to protect themsleves from COVID-19 cross-infection that affected everyone. In an effort to create good awareness about good physical hygiene that can help to prevent cross-infection and protect precious lives, Tune Protect collaborated with Health Equity Initiatives (HEI) to deliver 17,500 certified surgical face masks, 350 soap bars and bottles of hand sanitizers to 350 refugees under HEI’s care.

Certified surgical facemasks, soap bars and hand sanitizers for 350 refugees.

Tune Protect CSR Lead Shawn Augustin handing over the COVID-19 Prevention Donation to Ashley Koh,
HEI’s Program Coordinator

This COVID-19 Prevention Initiative is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 promoting Good Health and Well-Being among refugees in the Klang Valley.

An Emergency Flood Relief Collaboration with PIAM, FINCO and Mercy Malaysia.

Tune Protect responded to the Emergency Flood Relief Fund plight sent out by Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia/ (PIAM). This was in response to FINCO’s call to urgently raise funds for the major floods that hit the country. Supported by Bank Negara Malaysia, FINCO is the Financial Industry Collective Outreach collaborative initiative pioneered by all financial institutions in Malaysia.

Mercy Malaysia’s Call for Emergency Flood Relief Donations

• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support which included drinking water, water for washing, antiseptic solution, soap, detergent, diapers, sanitary napkins, etc.
• Health and COVID-19 safeguarding and services which included hygiene kits, surgical face masks, gloves, hand sanitizers, PPE kits, etc.

This emergency donation is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 promoting Good Health and Well-Being among flood victims throughout Malaysia.

Tune Protect donated funds for the emergency hospitalization and surgical fees of a refugee youth who needed emergency medical attention. The victim suffered serious fractures and major skin lacerations to his head. He also suffered a concussion and had no recollection of how he was injured. Refugees do not have access to medical care and treatment like citizens do for financial and legal reasons. In a show of compassion and love for our fellow human being of a totally different nationality, race and background, Yayasan Chow Kit voluntarily took this refugee under their wing and committed to settling his bills in full. The surgery was successful and the refugee is recovering from his injuries. This is the actual photo of the refugee resting after the operation. His face is not visible to protect his identity and privacy.

In a separate incident, a massive fire ravaged several homes in Chow Kit area. One of the children under Yayasan Chow Kit’s Care was severely affected by the loss caused by the fire after it destroyed the few things her family owned. Tune Protect stepped in to provide a cash donation to help sustain the family for a while to help them get back up on their feet again.

The friendship between Tune Protect and Yayasan Chow Kit began in 2018 when we donated funds to repair the major roof leaks that hampered safety, lessons and activity at YCK’s Pusat Aktiviti Kanak-Kanak. Under our “Sponsor A Kid Back to School” initiative, we also donated full set of school unforms for the children. Then in 2019, Tune Protect collaborated with COBRA Rugby Club Malaysia to bring the children PROBRATS rugby training.

Making the Christmas Wish of 123 Orang Asli Families Come True

Tune Protect learnt from the Tune Protect Orang Asli Bamboo Straw Enterprise entrepreneurs that their fellow villagers in Rompin and Bahau in Negeri Sembilan wished for essential food items (Christmas Stars) for Christmas. Malnutrition is a problem plaguing the Orang Asli everywhere and so we sprang into action to rally staff to donate rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, salt and nutritious beverage for 123 Orang Asli families; 95 for the villagers in Rompin and another 28 for the villagers in Bahau. Our staff from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malacca, Kuching and Adelaide, Australia pitched in to donate Christmas Stars and watched their names appearing on our Virtual Christmas Tree above! After just 8 days, we were ready for Santa to deliver the “Christmas Stars” to the villagers.

On 21^st December, representatives from Majlis Belia Malaysia and Majlis Belia Orang Asli Malaysia extended their appreciation to all of us at Tune Protect when they collected the Christmas Stars from our corporate office. All 123 “Christmas Stars” were then loaded into “Santa’s Sleigh” that was parked neatly by the side of the building.

“Santa’s sleigh” safely delivered the Christmas Stars into the hands of the villagers who followed established COVID-19 SOPs.

Tune Protect also donated several boxes of pre-loved items that our staff donated to the villagers.

And so the villagers thanked Tune Protect, Majlis Belia Malaysia and Majlis Belia Orang Asli Malaysia for making a meaningful difference that Christmas. The “Wish Upon a Christmas Star” Initiative was reported in the New Straits Times, Malaysian Business Online and the Malaysian Insurance Institute Publications. This initiative was in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 promoting good Health and Well-Being.

Kuala Lumpur, 4 January 2021 - Bringing the Christmas spirit of giving last year, Tune Protect Group Berhad (“Tune Protect” or “Company”) fulfilled the wishes of two Orang Asli communities through its ‘Wish Upon A Christmas Star’ initiative that provided essential food items to 123 families from two Orang Asli villages in Negeri Sembilan. Collaborating with Majlis Belia Orang Asli Malaysia (“MBOAM”) and Majlis Belia Malaysia (“MBM”), Tune Protect rallied a donation drive among its employees for essential food items for a total of 95 families in Kampung Batu Peti, Rompin, and 28 families in Kampung Jeram Padang, Bahau, both in Negeri Sembilan.

Tune Protect champions the idea of assisting Orang Asli youth to venture into entrepreneurship to attain financial independence by. Tune Protect organizes bootcamps that teach basic financial knowledge and skills necessary for entrepreneurship and to make a living. However, the Orang Asli communities have not been spared of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and in response to their appeal for assistance, Tune Protect shifted its gears to contribute the essentials requested during the festive season to lift their spirits and help to see them through tough times brought on by the pandemic.

Many Tune Protect work-from-home staff in Klang Valley, as well as those located in different parts of Malaysia, including East Malaysia and even in Australia, responded speedily to the 7-day donation drive organised during this ongoing Conditional Movement Control Order to quickly deliver essential food items to the Tune Protect Headquarters in Wisma Tune, Damansara Heights to help the Orang Asli villagers. The essential food items donated include rice, wheat flour, cooking oil, sugar, salt and a nutritious beverage, were delivered and handed to the villages by MBM right before Christmas.

Youth from these two villages attended Tune Protect’s Orang Asli Financial Literacy, Empowerment & Entrepreneurship Programme (FLEE), which was initiated in 2018. The FLEE programme has been an ongoing initiative by Tune Protect to introduce inspirational and practical training for the Orang Asli communities with a mission to help them flee aimlessness, joblessness, poverty and social ills.

“Staying true to one of our core values, ‘Better Together’, the spirit of coming together as one has never been stronger here at Tune Protect. It is heartwarming to see the response from our people, joining forces for this cause and showcasing the true spirit of Christmas. We take pride in our FLEE programme that provides Orang Asli youth with the means for them to sustain their livelihoods, but this time around, we responded to their wish to have basic food essentials by providing them with what they need most in times of the pandemic,” said Yap Hsu Yi, Chief - People & Culture of Tune Protect.

The FLEE Programme is a 3-phase programme which consists of boot camps that are organised in collaboration with MBOAM which welcomes the participation of Orang Asli youths from any tribe, village and state who want to explore entrepreneurship and bring it back to their villages to inspire other youths as well. A total of four Orang Asli businesses were successfully registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia as a result of FLEE. They are OA Bamboo Straw Enterprise by the Semelai entrepreneurs from Negeri Sembilan, OA Beauty by Jahut entrepreneurs from Pahang, OA Asli Zara Enterprise by Semai entrepreneurs from Perak and EBalar Handicraft by the Temiar entrepreneurs from Kelantan.

FLEE is a flagship programme by Tune Protect that is in line with the Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) Framework with three pillars that promote Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship and Protection. Tune Protect seeks to meaningfully assist dependent and underserved communities within its reach under the CSR framework, with and the Orang Asli communities as the beneficiaries of the FLEE programme.

For more information on Tune Protect’s local community engagements, please visit their website at www.tuneprotect.com

Tune Protect Sponsors Bake with Dignity Bakers with EasyCare Personal Accident Coverage worth up to RM500,000

Tune Protect sustained the sponsorship of the EasyCare Personal Accident Insurance for differently-abled bakers employed by Bake with Dignity. Under the ”Sponsor Bake with Dignity” initiative that began in 2019, Tune Protect provided complimentary Personal Accident coverage for bakers with Autism, Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and other learning conditions. Tune Protect also caters from Bake with Dignity occasionally because these hearty bakers can bake a wide variety of super-delicious cakes, quiche, salted caramel fudge brownies and cookies. They can also prepares jams, roasted nuts and sauces.

According to Bake with Dignity’s Co-Founder Ms. Pang Hin Yue (Ms. Pang), the sponsorship was very well-received by the bakery and the parents/guardians of all the bakers because Tune Protect’s PA coverage for the differently-abled is the only PA coverage they have had in all their lives. Oriental Daily News could not resist publishing an article about this sponsorship. The article also educated the public about the good work Bake with Dignity does to provide its bakers with a good sense of achievement in securing employment that is not normally available elsewhere. The newspaper interviewed Yap Hsu Yi, Tune Protect’s Chief – People & Culture, and Yap Hsu Yi and Ms. Pang from Bake with Dignity.

This sponsorship is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 that promotes Good Health & Well Being, Goal No. 8 that promotes Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal No. 11 that promotes building communities.

Upcycling Pre-Loved Denims for Several Good Causes

Tune Protect initiated Project Frankenstein in support of single mothers who are employed by Suri Lifestyle (Suri), a renowned social enterprise that also provides training for them. The project was named after Frankenstein, a famous 1818 novel written by Mary Shelly about Dr. Frankenstein who used his genius to bring a being to life after some heavy duty stitching! Similarly, Suri’s single mothers artistically and skillfully upcycle pieces of pre-loved denims that they stitch into “cool” merchandize such as laptop sleeves, kimonos, tote bags, sandals, purses, just to name a few.

Resolute that the pandemic would not halt Tune Protect’s Community Engagement efforts, the collection of the pre-loved denims began soon after the pandemic was declared. Although most of our staff worked from home during this period, we were still able to collect quite a good number of pre-loved denims for Suri. This CSR initiative was 2-pronged because not only did it provide single mothers with the material needed to sustain their employment it also gave us the opportunity to take climate action and protect the environment too. The donation made it unnecessary for Suri to purchase extra new denims for them to work with.

Not many know that using a single pre-loved denim translates to saving 10,000 liters of water because that’s the amount of water needed to manufacture a single pair of jeans, according to the research and data provided by the United Nations! Therefore, the denim jeans we collected would prevent wasting tens of thousands of liters of water! In addition to saving precious water, using pre-loved denims also fights global warming because less electricity is used and less heat is generated by the manufacturing process. This initiative also prevents bleach and chemical dye from contaminating our precious water sources.

This initiative has also cascaded to the Wisma Tune GoGreen Committee members who have also joined in the effort to collect pre-loved denims for Suri. This initiative is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 11 that promotes Sustainable Communities and Goal No. 13 that promotes Climate Action.

This is the 2^nd time Tune Protect has collaborated with Suri. In 2019, Suri joined Tune Protect in setting up a stall at Tune Protect’s Eco Bazaar alongside several environmentally conscious enterprises which include The Truly Loving Company, Athena Empowers, Borneo Cocoa and Tune Protect’s Orang Asli entrepreneurs from OA Bamboo Straw Enterprise.