HSL Helps Improve Single Mother’s Home
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First ‘Healthy Bodies, Happy Minds’ Kicks Off With Hope Place
KUCHING: Hock Seng Lee (HSL) on Saturday kicked off its new ‘Healthy Bodies, Happy Minds’ corporate social responsibility programme by improving a single mother’s home.
Good samaritans from HSL repaired the back portion of the building, where the kitchen and toilets are, installed new doors and fixed sections of walls at the home at Siburan, about 20km from Kuching.
The company sponsored all the equipment, while some 40 staff, from accounts to project management, took part in the renovations.
Corporate affairs manager Shirley Loo said HSL selected Hope Place as its first Healthy Bodies collaboration partner due to the NGO’s strong track record of bringing together public and private sectors for good causes.
“We are great admirers of Hope Place and its founder Kelvin Wan. Wan’s contribution to society is immeasurable. Hope Place was the top pick of this first ‘Healthy Bodies, Happy Minds’ group,” Loo said.
“Besides sponsoring Hope Place, Wan gave us a list of families whom we could directly help. We selected the Siburan family, as they are a family of three children headed by a single mother.
“Our staff took the opportunity to involve the children, from five years old to a teenager, and taught them skills like planting vegetables. We also installed a new clothes drying post and cleared the surroundings. A few staff brought extra clothes and food for the family.”
Wan was pleased with the HSL-Hope Place collaboration. He said HSL stepped forward after reading about the family’s plight in the newspaper recently.
“There are many members of the public who need a helping hand. Hope Place was founded to help identify poor deserving families and match them with government welfare programmes and private donations. For this family, HSL stepped up. We hope for more future collaborations,” Wan said.
‘Healthy Bodies, Happy Minds’ is HSL’s new CSR initiative, a tie up between Human Resources and Corporate Affairs departments.
All staff members are divided into monthly groups. Each group will organise a social outreach activity. They are given time off and a budget.
Staff are given freedom to plan their activities, while the management has given a loose guideline that the CSR should be towards a “caring society and greener environment”.
“While HSL builds amazing infrastructure for Sarawak and great homes for our clients, we also want to help those who are less fortunate. A caring society is a better society,” said HSL executive director Simon Lau Kiing Kang.
“Many of us come from humble backgrounds, and we have benefitted from a helping hand. This is a virtuous cycle we want contribute to.”
HSL has set up a special CSR page on its website seeking for public ideas and feedback.
For more information, visit hsl.com,my, facebook.com/hopeplacekuching or facebook.com/kelvinwanvolunteerwork.