IN conjunction with the coming Christmas celebration, Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd threw a year-end school holiday cum Christmas party for the Orang Asli Christian community in Pahang on Nov 30.
As part of Sports Toto’s Helping Hands corporate social responsibility programme, the company has been collaborating with Strategic Education Methods and Ongoing Advancements Bhd (SEMOA), a non-governmental organisation that helps to improve the living standard of the Orang Asli community, to celebrate Christmas since 2013.
“During this holiday season, Sports Toto is happy to bring festive cheer to the indigenous community because it is very important that we continue to support the underprivileged group.
“We are very proud of what SEMOA has done for the people here as we learned that the number of Orang Asli parents sending their children to the SEMOA education centre in Raub has increased significantly,” said Sports Toto senior communications manager Giam Say Khoon.
He added that the efforts of SEMOA has gained traction among the Orang Asli on the importance of educating their children.
“All these do not happen overnight and we want to congratulate SEMOA for its noble initiatives,” said Giam.
The carnival-like Christmas party, which attracted the participation of over 1,200 people, was made successful with the help of Orang Asli parents who set up food and game stalls and their children who entertained the guests with a series of song and dance performances.
Every child who attended the party also received a Christmas goodie bag with toys and stationery prepared by Sports Toto.
One of the Helping Hands programme’s objectives is to bring cheer to the needy and underprivileged groups during festive seasons.
The programme also supports national sports development and other socio-cultural community projects such as marathon and half-marathon sponsorships, book reading campaigns for primary schools as well as environmental conservation campaigns.
