A new place to call home for family
A NEW two-bedroom house has transformed the life of an orang asli family in Batang Kali, Selangor, last week, courtesy of General Electric (GE) and AirAsia.
The house, built from scratch by 29 volunteers from both companies, was completed in three days.
The companies collaborated with Epic Homes, an initiative by social enterprise EPIC Collaborative Sdn Bhd, in conjunction with GE’s Global Community Day on July 6.
EPIC Homes is an initiative in line with the Low Income Household (LIH) National Key Results Area (NKRA) of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) 2.0, under the purview of Pemandu.
Focused on building sustainable housing for the poor and underprivileged, the initiative is committed to ensuring that every orang asli has a safe home.
The family of Rizal and Rini, who were the recipients of the house, joined in the fun and got into their working gear to build the house with their bare hands.
With the capital investment contributed by the GE Volunteers Network and AirAsia, 29 employee volunteers including the GE chief executive officer (Asean) Stuart Dean, and Air Asia Bhd chief executive officer Aireen Omar, were also on site with the employee volunteers to build the home.
The home, which consists of two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a foyer, is one of the first to be built through corporate sponsorship in collaboration with EPIC Homes.
“GE has had a long standing partnership with AirAsia, one that goes beyond just business to include giving back to our communities.
“Through this project, our volunteers have had the opportunity to come together for a good cause, and positively impact the lives of a family.
“Our participation in this project is in line with our strong commitment to drive sustainability across all aspects of the community and countries where we operate in,” said Dean.
EPIC Homes aims to inspire, mobilise and empower individuals to become the solution to rural development challenges through collaboration and volunteerism.
As a non-partisan and non-religious outfit, EPIC Homes serves as a platform that aims to bridge the rural and urban divide by addressing the 82% housing need of the estimated 12,000 families orang asli families in Peninsula Malaysia.
It uses an integrated approach that combines a unique building system, training program and strategic partnerships to solve problems faced by the orang asli in rural housing.
Through their building system, a team of ordinary people are transformed into skilled builders, allowing them to build a home in just three days.
“We are happy to partner with GE in this project and extend AirAsia’s contribution and support to building homes for underprivileged communities in Malaysia.
“As a corporate organisation, we are constantly reminded on the importance of being socially responsible, especially towards our own local community in the country.
“Our aim is not just to enable everyone to fly as affordably as possible, but also lend a hand in contributing to the goals of the nation,” said Aireen.
Co-Founder and CEO of EPIC Collaborative John-Son Oei thanked GE and AirAsia for their support and contribution in being one of the pioneers of the corporate sponsorship and team building program.
“With the success of this project, we hope to collaborate further with the corporate sector as we continue play our part in enhancing living conditions for orang asli families.” he said.
EPIC Homes incorporates a “PayIt-Forward” programme where recipients of the home build together with volunteers and continues to build homes for other orang asli families, encouraging relationship building between participants and recipients.
EPIC Homes has built 15 homes with over 300 people from around the world and is seeking more corporate partners to join this mission.
For more information, to donate or get involved, please visit www. epichome.org.
PemanduLowIncomeHouseholds NKRA director Chua Hong Teck said it was one the core commitments of the GTP to be as inclusive as possible to ensure that no Malaysian was left behind.
“A key aspect of the LIH NKRA is to systematically improve living standards of underprivileged Malaysians by providing supporting infrastructure such as homes, to help them break out of the cycle of poverty.
“The joint efforts of NGOs such as EPIC Homes, and private sector companies such as GE and AirAsia, are highly commendable and we hope to see more of such collaborations like this in the future,” he said.