One by One

Children in remote villages of Malaysia do not always have access to arts education, or even the opportunity to see large-scale musical performances.

Amway Malaysia is working with a musical troupe called Hands Percussion to offer the opportunity for those children to experience musical education, many for the first tiime.

Hands Percussion started the Balik Kampung (Homecoming) project three years ago as a way to support local communities. It is focused on teaching children about music and how to create musical instruments with recycled materials.

While successful, the Balik Kampung project was not able to scale up with outside help.

Amway Malaysia has committed to help meet that need by pledging RM270,000 ($239,000 USD) to bring music education to children in small towns, and also mobilize Amway distributor volunteers to help make the project successful. The partnership was announced to 3,000 cheering Amway distributors at a business meeting with top Amway leaders Leonard and Esther Kim.

The “Hands Percussion Balik Kampung with Amway” project will cover five states, culminating in a one-day event in Kuala Lumpur that will showcase the talents of children from 15 towns.

“For the past three years, we have been funding the project on our own and have covered ten locations,” said Eric Ch’ng, Co-Founder and Administrative Director of Hands Percussion Sdn Bhd. “This year, we are very happy that an organization like Amway is committed to helping us continue our project to bring the gift of music to children who may not otherwise have the opportunity.”

Photo of Eric Ch’ng receiving the Amway pledge from Amway Malaysia General Manager Paul Yee. Thanks to Joanne Yap for sharing this story.

We recently discussed how play can help the physical and intellectual development of children.

In Malaysia, play is also being used to support emotional health through a concept called Play Therapy.

Amway Malaysia recently hosted 41 children from four different children’s shelters. They took part in part in play therapy sessions, with play therapist Chris Ng.

Click here to read the full story from the Sun Daily.

From guest blogger Sri Soekarmoen.

Amway Malaysia recently invited 60 children and their foster parents to visit their headquarters. Why is this significant?

To understand the full story, allow me to teach you a few Malaysian words.

Rumah means home. Tunas means seeds. Harapan means hope.

When you put them together, you have Rumah Tunas Harapan, a home that nurtures the seeds of hope, also known as a home for orphaned and abandoned children who live with foster parents.

The Malaysian Social Welfare Department introduced this new approach with the hope to provide a “family system” to children. In 1986, Amway Malaysia pledged RM500,000 for the construction of six Rumah Tunas Harapan.

Since then, Amway’s employees and distributors have visited the children on regular basis. These volunteers have not forgotten about the welfare of the children even after the construction was completed. The company also provides annual grant for children’s activities. 

The children grow up in Rumah Tunas Harapan until they reach the age of 17. They leave “home” to pursue education and career and to have family of their own. The bond between the children and their foster parents remains strong and they often come back to visit.

The same is true with the relationship between Amway and Rumah Tunas Harapan, which remains strong. During an Amway Superweekend, the families visited Amway headquarters and toured its facilities.

Hajjah Saphiah Binti Romly has been a foster parent at Rumah Tunas Harapan and acquainted with Amway for more than 20 years. To her, the trip represents a culmination of a decades-old partnership. She says, “It’s like a home-coming of sorts for us.”