Business and IT leaders put their best foot forward for Penang flood relief

Using online messaging service, WhatsApp, cybersecurity consultancy service provider, Firmus, organised a fundraising campaign, which in the space of 30 hours, managed to raise RM25,000.

The idea to conduct a fund raising exercise in the chat room, first came from from Choong Yat Weng, CIO of Malacca Securities. He merely wanted to help out and pointed out he also had friends on the ground in Penang, providing food and clothings.

In fact, a few chat room members were in Penang during the flood, and were helping out via organisations like the Rotary Club of Penang and the ‘Persatuan Bomba Sukarela Kota Permai.’

Fire brigade volunteers at work. They even helped to ferry students to their SPM examinations in Jit Sin Independent school!

Choong said, “I think sometimes we need to give back to the society. Even though my contribution amount is small but when we do it in group we can raise a sizable some to help those victims.”

Choong added, “I also want to thank Alan of Firmus, for allowing our CIO chat group to conduct the fund raising.”

Firmus CEO and founder, Alan See, said, “Firmus is not a big organisation, but we have great relationships with most of our friendly CxOs, and when the community needs help, I believe they are willing to extend their support.

“We started the campaign on 5 Nov, 2017 2.00pm via Firmus CxO Group Chat and we are glad to receive a very warm and motivating response from the group. We managed to secure RM 25,000 by 6 Nov 2017 5.00pm. To me, each of us can only do the best we can!”

A total of 40 CIOs donated to the cause, and funds have been channelled towards the following organisations, which have conducted and are still conducting relief efforts in Penang.

• Persatuan Bomba Sukarela Kota Permai Bukti Mertajam
• Rotary Club of Penang
• Siri Jayanti Welfare Organisation – SJWO

See concluded, “It warms my heart to see so many donating. Regardless of the amount of the contribution, we truly appreciate and thank you all for the generosity and kindness. I want to express my appreciation for your generosity in support of Penang Flood Relief Fundraising. Your personal commitment was incredibly helpful and allowed us to reach our goal. I am sure the recipients of the donation will deeply appreciate all your kindness.”

The WhatsApp messaging service, kept everyone in the group apprised of what was happening in Penang, and was used to share updates about the flood situation, as well as enabled transparency and quick group consensus on organisations to channel the donations towards.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]