Henkel SilverNight

Henkel held their 25th Anniversary dinner at Syuen Hotel on 23rd May 2008. HJ and I were invited as guests of New Horizons Special Children Centre, Ipoh. HJ is the auditor for New Horizons.

Henkel (M) Sdn Bhd is a company that produces electronic adhesives. Its parent company is in Germany. As part of their corporate social responsibilities, Henkel donates to societies and schools for children in need.

New Horizon is one of the societies. The other societies at the dinner were Hannah Home, Precious Gift Home, Pertubuhan Jagaan Kanak2 Cacat (disabled) and Pusat Jagaan Anak Yatim dan Miskin Nurul Aman (orphans and the poor).

New Horizons Society is a non-profit organisation which encourages and promotes the involvement of the Ipoh community towards the education and welfare of people with learning disabilities. It has been running an Early Intervention Centre since 1995. They provide an educational programme (EIP) for pre-school children and babies with development delays, learning difficulties or mental handicaps. They are run by Michelle and George.

Hannah Home was founded by Pastor Carol Cheng Penner and her Canadian husband. It was established on 7th June 2001. They house orphaned, abandoned and autistic children as well as homeless elderly ladies and single parents. Hannah Home is also adopted by the Budimas Charitable Foundation whose primary mission is to support projects that promote the welfare and well being of underprivileged children in Malaysia.

The children performed a dance at the dinner which was quite good! I tried to take a video of it but unfortunately the stage was too brightly lit for my handphone camera.

I was unable to search for any details on the other homes, unfortunately, so I will not be able to list any information on them here.

When I was in a mall in Kuala Lumpur I was approached by a kindly elderly gentleman who was collecting pledges for Budimas. I was interested to contribute a one time donation but that option was not available.

Later I recalled a controversial article in the Star about fund raising companies that NGOs subscribe to. It appears that the fund raising company takes about 50% of the funds raised for their overheads leaving the balance for the NGOs. There were some objections by the public regarding this and it cast a negative light on charities. However the NGOs rebutted that they used fund raising companies for their expertise; to get a steady flow of funds as well as to leave the NGO staff to do their job of caring for their charges.

For me, I think I will donate directly to the home.