P&G Open Minds

Tuesday May 31, 2011

Procter & Gamble Malaysia fulfils promise to set up facilities for special kids

Procter & Gamble Malaysia (P&G), which had pledged to contribute multi-sensory therapy facilities at Community Rehabi-litation Centres (PDK) nationwide, recently announced that it has accomplished its mission.

“The project has come to completion with multi-sensory facilities built throughout Malaysia,” said P&G Malaysia and Singapore CEO Ellie Xie.

Starting from 2009, P&G through its CSR initiative Open Minds, has pledged to contribute a total of RM1mil to benefit the education needs of special children in Malaysia.

The funds were to be used to equip community rehabilitation centres nationwide with multi-sensory therapy facilities.

“For more than a decade now, Open Minds has provided special children all over Malaysia with tangible educational resources, such as the multi-sensory room, to help improve their lives.

Reason to celebrate: P&G vice-president of external relations in Asia Erik Jonnaert (right) teaching a special child how to clap as Shahrizat and Xie look on.

“From the start, we recognised the challenge to complete such an ambitious project and we know we needed a strong partner.

“We turned to the Welfare Department and its well-established network of PDKs nationwide. Our long-standing partnership with them, the National Welfare Foundation and full support from the Women, Family & Community Development Ministry, was key to the initiative’s success,” she said.

A ceremony to mark the handover of the 50th multi-sensory therapy facility was held at the PDK in Kem Perdana Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur recently.

Present at the event was Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Shahrizat lauded P&G’s continued commitment to special children through the Open Minds initiative.

“P&G’s contribution of multi-sensory facilities within PDKs in every state in Malaysia has clearly enhanced the educational support we are able to extend to special children. We hope that our strategic alliance and fruitful partnership with Open Minds will continue to benefit the needs of special children, for a long time to come,” she said as she was taken through the newly built multi-sensory facilities by the PDK’s caregivers.

The therapy rooms provide multi-sensory stimulation for children with learning disabilities in a soothing environment. The rooms are also specially designed to deliver stimuli like lighting effects, colour and sounds to the various senses.

“Besides building the multi-sensory rooms, we also organised a training session for the PDK teachers in October last year to ensure that they are able to fully utilise the rooms and maximise the impact it will have on the special children,” added Xie.

The P&G Open Minds programme is part of P&G’s Live, Learn and Thrive global corporate cause that focuses the philanthropic efforts of P&G’s brands, employees and corporate foundation on improving life for children in need, from infancy to 13-years-old.

In Malaysia, Open Minds continues to focus on helping and improving the future of special children by providing the special education and facilities they require to Live, Learn and Thrive.

Since its inception in 1999, Open Minds has reached out and touched the lives of over 8000 special children through various projects and campaigns.

For more information about Open Minds, visit www.openminds.my