KUALA LUMPUR: Ahead of this year’s Chinese New Year celebration, Sime Darby Auto ConneXion (SDAC) recently shared some early festive joy at three charitable homes, in addition to releasing an original hip hop-rap Ford CNY song to usher in the festive season with all Malaysians nationwide.
Charity visits have been a long-standing tradition for the sole distributor for Ford in Malaysia.
However, with multiple ways of giving back to the community, SDAC is expanding its CSR efforts beyond old folk’s homes and orphanages to support mental health and youth talent development in the local music industry.
SDAC-Ford volunteers and Astro MELODY DJs with representative of Ti Ratana Welfare Society.
For the Ford CNY song, SDAC scoured the Internet for hidden social media gems that showed potential but needed more exposure and industry-related experience.
The self-taught amateur rap group https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUURdYEXhBk3gwlHYzKkJg stood out with their raw talent and unique blend of rapping and hip-hop dance moves.
The result is a fun and catchy tune aired on the Astro MY and LITE radio channels starting from Jan 16 until Chinese New Year.
Sime Darby Auto ConneXion-Ford managing director Turse Zuhair said festive charity visits have been part of SDAC-Ford’s CSR efforts for decades.
Spring cleaning at En Yuan Old Folk Home.
“Coming together to care for the less fortunate is an activity that our employees look forward to every year.
“This year, we also wanted to extend our support to youth development and the progress of home-grown talents that need opportunities and exposure.
“We know how challenging our local music scene can be, which is why we decided to engage a relatively unknown but very talented rap group to create a brand-new Ford song to welcome in the Lunar New Year,” said Turse.
To provide aid to the needy, SDAC-Ford collaborated with Astro MELODY to run a contest where listeners can nominate the old folk’s home or orphanage to receive some early festive cheer and assistance with the CNY preparations.
Turse (right) presenting food items to IQ70Plus founder Chang Ming Kiet.
From the list, two homes were selected for this year’s charity visit – Ti Ratana Welfare Society’s Orphanage and En Yuan Old Folk Home.
SDAC employee volunteers visited the homes with Astro MELODY on three separate days to help with spring cleaning as is the tradition with pre-celebration preparations.
They also brought cheer in the form of karaoke for the En Yuan old folks’ home and entertainment by a clown for the children of Ti-Ratana before lunch.
Goodest Plan members Ter, Edwin and Alex.
They were also joined by popular MELODY DJs Mei Sim Hoon, Jentzen Lim and William San and one of the contest winners.
Separately, SDAC-Ford Ara Damansara and Petaling Jaya also selected a third home - Persatuan Kebajikan Kanak-kanak Terencat Akal Malaysia (IQ70Plus) - for direct support.
Besides spring cleaning, the volunteers also brought along with them sundry provisions and other essential items as requested by each specific home based on their needs.
SDAC-Ford also expanded its CSR efforts in a bid to support the development of home-grown young artistes, many of whom are very talented but lack exposure to experts in the industry and publicity.
This CNY presented a great platform to create an unconventional Ford CNY song to spread festive cheer to all Malaysians while helping to generate some mainstream awareness for local rap group GDP which showed great promise with their hip-hop rap format, a genre that is currently trending throughout the world.
