Helping Orang Asli children back to school safe and protected

364 Orang Asli school children in Pahang, Perak and Johor returning during the Covid-19 pandemic will be equipped with back-to-school essentials for the 2021 school year which began this Jan 20.

Malaysia’s laundry detergent TOP will be contributing the back-to-school necessities through ‘A Brighter Future with TOP’ campaign in collaboration with Tesco and Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA). The programme returned for the sixth consecutive year.

The recipients are three Orang Asli primary schools – SK Kampung Kudong in Bekok Johor, SK Pos Dipang in Jeram, Perak and SK Terisu, in Cameron Highlands, Pahang.

Each child will receive two reusable cloth face masks, in addition to new uniforms, shoes, socks, school bags, stationery sets, colour pencils and exercise books. These back-to-school essential will be delivered to the Orang Asli communities ahead of the new school term by JAKOA.

“Orang Asli populations are among the hardest hit economically by Covid-19. In cooperation with JAKOA, we identified the addition of reusable cloth face masks as a way to reduce the spread of Covid-19 by protecting the children while reducing the economic burden on families,” said Ling Ai Li, fabric care division marketing manager of Southern Lion Sdn Bhd.

“The contribution serves to motivate the children to attend school, while easing their parents’ financial burden and giving parents peace of mind that their children are protected against the pandemic.”   

Ling said TOP will also be contributing its TOP Super Hygienic detergent to each Orang Asli family to hygienically and thoroughly clean their laundry including school uniforms and cloth face masks.

“Our TOP Super Hygienic powder detergent and TOP Odour Buster liquid detergent are especially suitable during the pandemic as the antibacterial formulation kills 99.9% of bacteria for maximum protection and has high performance anti-sweat odour to deactivate musty smells, deodorize fabric and eliminate trapped sebum.”

Ling said the campaign has resonated with TOP consumers over the past five years. “We hope that consumers will continue to support A Brighter Future with TOP this year, as the need is greater than ever.”

JAKOA director-general Prof Juli Edo said the Orang Asli communities and JAKOA are grateful to all Malaysians for their support of the campaign and to TOP for contributing reusable cloth face masks that will make a vital difference providing protection for children, peace-of-mind and easing economic burden on parents.

Through the campaign TOP contributed 30 sen from sales of TOP detergent products sold at all Tesco stores, and Tesco online in Malaysia during the campaign period from Dec 1-31, 2020.

The campaign is in line with the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025, which emphasizes improving outcomes for Orang Asli students through a public-private partnership that extends to parents and communities to help transform the education system, and is especially timely as the Covid-19 third wave sees cases spiking.

As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, TOP organized the annual charity fund-raising campaign, now in its sixth year, for underprivileged children. Over the past five years, the campaign has benefited 2,500 children aged between 7 to 17 years from communities in need including Orang Asli and NGOs serving orphans and children from single-parent households.

TOP, the Putra Brand Award 2019 Platinum winner for the household product category, is manufactured by Southern Lion Sdn Bhd, a joint venture company between Lam Soon (M) Bhd and Lion Corporation of Japan. Southern Lion is the first detergent manufacturer to be ISO 9001 certified.