In conjunction with the World White Ribbon Day, Sunway University’s School of Health and Natural Science conducted a talk about Domestic Violence against Women. The White Ribbon Day was created to raise awareness in order to hinder violence against women. The students from the Department of Nursing, School of Health and Natural Science who were undertaking Moral Studies organized a talk at Sunway University (Sunway). Admission to the talk was through the purchase of white ribbon priced at RM 1.

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The talk included speeches by student representatives who educated their audience on what violence against women is, the different type of violence and how to protect themselves should they ever be attacked. Kimberly Loh, a student from the Faculty of Nursing Group 2009, 07 said “Gender inequality is in the past. However some tribes still practice the mindset that women are a burden and children are still being buried alive. However, more input has been put by the government, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and even the public to raise awareness on violence against women”.

“The government has taken a proactive measure to educate children about the severity of violence especially against women from an early age. They are also taught to respect each other and care for one another”, Kimberly added. NGO’s as well as the community and public have taken the initiative to educate women on their rights as well as what to do and where to go should they be violated against. The Nursing students managed to raise a total of RM 1,580 for twenty single mothers currently residing in Kg. Sg. Kayu Ara, Damansara. Proceeds will go to all the single mothers through a supply of provision of rice, sugar and milk.

Three representatives, Vasantha Tharamalingam, Shanthi Katharayan and Aswathamah Varathappa were present to receive a mock cheque worth RM 1580. Following the talk, they will be presented with hampers for all the single mothers.

Mr. Santhana Raja, a Lecturer for Language and Compulsory Centre said ‘It was challenging for the students to put together this event let alone raise enough money in such short notice. Nevertheless they accomplished their goal and also raised the bar for future students to follow”.

70 students from various diploma programmes (Hotel Management, Culinary Arts, Events Management and Tourism Management) of the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Management (SHTLM), Sunway University, raised RM8, 000 for the Orang Asli Community through the Project E.P.I.C recently.

Project E.P.I.C, an acronym for Extraordinary People Impacting Community is an outreach programme that is focused on improving plight of the indigenous people in Malaysia, specifically the orang asli community.

The SHTLM students saw this as an opportunity to be involved and made a contribution by organizing ‘The Project Go Green’. The project was aimed at raising funds for the community through a bazaar. Students sold food and t-shirts to earn funds for the project. This also allowed them to exercise their culinary skills as they prepared various foods for staff and students to indulge in. Desserts were also prepared to entice the crowd they managed to draw.

Students learnt to work together with each other and other course mates in raising as much funds as they could for a good course.

John-Son Oei, a leading member of Growing Emerging Leaders (GEL) and coordinator of Project EPIC expressed gratitude to the SHTLM students for their kind contribution. He said “I am proud that youths today care about the community and are willing to be involved by assisting those who are in-need”.

The latest assignment by Project EPIC is the building of houses for the orang asli community in order to improve their living standards. The houses will be equipped with electricity facilities through solar technology and rain water filtration system. The RM 8,000 will be used towards this project.

It was an eventful 3 days in Sunway University as a humble group of students from the Diploma in Information Technology (also known as DIT) set up a booth at the Energy Hub to be a voice and support for animals. We set up and manned a booth for donation collection, fund-raising through a food and snack sale and a petition signing.

The booth was in operations on 25th, 28th February and 1st of March. Funds were raised through the sale of cakes, finger food and drinks which were to be given to PAWS (Paws Animal Welfare Society). 100% of the funds collected were donated to PAWS even without covering of costs to those who provided the items sold. The petition signing was done to voice the concern of the public for the charges against animal abusers and to urge government to allocate more budget on animal welfare. Many signed the petition in support of it. More than five hundred names were collected by our Sunway students within 2 days.

Before we started selling our foodstuff and drinks, we were expecting a low amount of sales coming in. However to our surprise, most of our items practically sold out after the end of each day. All of us were so delighted and did not expect the amount we collected. Even the donations were beyond our expectations. We earned a total of RM1500 for PAWS. A lesson learnt is to never underestimate the cause behind the act that motivates others to support us.

Another event that took place was far from our beloved University. 10 of us made a trip to PAWS located in Pilmoor Estate in Subang. We volunteered ourselves to help out for the day in cleaning and organizing the place. Although it was tiring, many of us had a great time as we worked hand in hand to make the place a better one for the sake of the animals. A comment was put forth by one of our members “Please spend some time with these unwanted animals”. We hope our efforts would encourage the public to donate and contribute to NGOs which provide animal shelters, such as PAWS which depends entirely on the generosity of public to allow the animals have a better place.

With that all said our campaign was a good one. However, we can only hope that this will not be the last we hear of a campaign for animals and their welfare. A great campaign and a great bunch of people to work with, what more do we need? Support the animals! Bring out their voices with yours! We can make the difference!

Equipped with a head for business and a heart for the world, the Sunway University SIFErs believes in a dream of enforcing changes within the community that reflects the famous saying, “Teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime”. It is with this understanding the SIFErs decided to work on an innovative way of teaching various communities skills that will assist them in raising funds as a survival kit instead of making a one off donation.

The Sunway University SIFErs stands for ‘Student in Free Enterprise’, is part of an international organisation that brings together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better sustainable world through the positive power of business. Aside from giving back to different communities, Sunway SIFErs is an appropriate environment for students to develop innovative and creative thinking to build their customised projects in a team.

The Sunway SIFErs have been involved in two projects in the past, the Eco Soap Project and the Project Sounds of Silence (SOS). The Eco Soap project was initiated with the aim of helping the Orang Asli women from the Kaum Semai society living in Post Betau, Kuala Lipis, Pahang develop skills to help maintain a more sustainable lifestyle. The project was targeted at 11 women who lived in an environment with improper hygiene and health care conditions that were burdened from the inability to educate their children in public schools let alone understand the importance of education.

The Sunway SIFErs initiated the idea to teach these women to develop the simple processes to develop the eco-friendly soap after learning that there is a demand for green products in the market. This eco-friendly soap has a pure palm old biodegradable base and doesn’t cause harm to the environment. It also promotes a healthier looking skin by locking in moisture into the skin texture. This potentially income-generating business and the knowledge imparted on to them to develop the soap with simple business knowledge from PERKAS (Persatuan Kemajuan Kaum Semai) will ensure the lives of the Semai women community are enhanced.

Another project the Sunway SIFE students worked on was the Project Sounds of Silence (SOS) that is concerned with empowering refugee women in Malaysia to be self-sustainable and independent. These women originating from different countries and cultures such as Somalia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Afghanistan are in need of a great support system as they are not able to work under a legal circumstance in Malaysia due to their status.

Having to still bear the responsibility to support their own families, the Sunway SIFErs invented ways to help them upgrade and market their products such as the brightly coloured cupcakes and well-designed apparels to Malaysian consumers. The women also offer catering and tailoring services for those willing to give them the opportunity.

Sunway SIFErs provides assistance and support from a business perspective to ensure they are able to generate an income as well as lessen the language barrier between the refugee women and the local community. The Sunway SIFErs have future plans to execute coaching for selected women to help them pursue the market with their products when they are highly attuned to cater to the Malaysian market standards.

The Sunway SIFE team have also raised funds for other SIFE Teams such as the SIFE Japan in which RM 1,170 was contributed to the victims who suffered a financial crisis in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami tragedy that hit the country earlier in March 2011.

SIFE Sunway has also established an internal, long term project known to be the Income Generation Project, a monthly open bazaar to raise funds for future projects and support Sunway SIFE’s operating expenses. This project will enable students to display and market the products produced from the other projects at the University.

After weeks of talking to and listening to 5 inspirational Malaysian philanthropic women as the host of NTV 7’s SK-11 Miracle Makers, Chermaine Poo decided that she would do her part for charity as well – by baking cupcakes to raise funds for a charitable organisation of her choice. Poo became the highlight in the show she was hosting when she challenged herself to bake 1,000 cupcakes and to sell them, in a charity drive named “Chermaine’s Cupcake Charity”.

The TV actress and chartered accountant baked the cupcakes single-handedly, only enlisting the help of her celebrity acquaintances and close friends to pack the cupcakes, all done within a span of two days. Within that time, Poo had to sell the beautiful cupcakes, packed in boxes of 6 starting at RM50 each, at Sunway Pyramid.

One of the first people she approached was Elizabeth Lee, the Executive Director of Sunway Education Group, a person she got to know as an ACCA student of Sunway College. To her delight, Lee informed Poo that Sunway University would donate RM5,000 towards her cupcake charity drive.

On her way to deliver the cupcakes to Sunway Pyramid, Poo made a special delivery of the cupcakes in a white Lotus sports car, at Sunway University. The delicious cupcakes were distributed to students and staff at the Sunway campus.

Poo admitted it was hard work. The entire process had to be planned out carefully as she could not afford to lose any time. The long hours of baking were very tiring and the pressure to meet the target on time was tremendous.

“I kept reminding myself that my five mentors did exactly that – they kept on doing it and did not give up. I thank God for the strength and perseverance, and my family and friends for their encouragement and support, and NTV 7 and SK-11 for giving me the opportunity and platform to launch my charity drive” said Poo.

Poo sold the rest of the cupcakes at Sunway Pyramid’s main concourse raising a total of RM18,000 for Shelter Home for Children, Petaling Jaya, proving without a doubt that she could make her own miracle project.

The School of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Management (SHTLM), Sunway University organised a charity dinner recently to raise funds and awareness for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia as part of the B.Sc (Hons) International Hospitality Management students’ assignment. The dinner was held at SHTLM’s training restaurant and supported by the newly renovated kitchen which was done in accordance with Le Cordon Bleu’s specifications.

Furthermore, the theme of this event was inspired by the musical film, Burlesque (2010) which was directed by Steven Antin and starred Christina Aguilera and Cher. Therefore, to truly bring out the essence of the theme, Viva Vertical, which specialises in pole dancing, agreed to perform for the event on a goodwill basis. In addition, Ryan de Alwis from MIX FM was also invited to emcee for that night.

Among the guests who were present, were the Executive Director of Sunway Education Group, Ms. Elizabeth Lee, and Youth Outreach Executive from WWF Malaysia, Mr. Brandon Liu. Ms. Anisha Chai, the Head of SHTLM said, “It is a meaningful activity as it was not only fulfilling the academic requirements but it was a community responsibility project as well.”

This event was entirely planned and executed by a team of 15 students under the supervision of the Head of Food and Beverage, Mr. Daniel Chong. He said, ”This event facilitates students to put operation management theories into practice, from conceptualisation to execution.” “A Spellbound Enchanted Evening with Wonderful Performances”, was the tagline of this dinner and it was beyond doubt achieved by this group of students as each of the guests left with a wide smile on their faces. Besides the breathtaking performances by Viva Vertical, guests were also entertained by the hostess, who dressed identical to a character of the film.
A total of RM4,000 was channelled to WWF Malaysia from the event. The donations were collected from numerous companies and individuals. Besides that, merchandise sponsored by a few companies was used as door gifts and lucky draw prizes. “Thank you to the students and all the good-hearted people who contributed” said Liu. Themed dinners like this are held mostly during the month of July and November every year, during the long semester periods which allow sufficient time for the students to plan, organise and execute these dinners successfully.