WHEN one has been dedicated to the same cause for over 20 years, others are bound to take notice.
So it is with Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd (Carlsberg Malaysia) whose efforts to promote education have found a place in the Malaysia Book of Records. Look up “Longest Running Chinese Charity Show in Malaysia” in the Malaysia Book of Records and you will find the “Top Ten Charity Campaign”, a collaborative effort that started in 1987 between Carlsberg Malaysia and local Chinese daily newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau and later, China Press. The campaign has been part of an effort to raise funds for the advancement of Chinese education and the development of Chinese institutions through concert-style charity road shows at Chinese primary schools across the country. Over the past two decades, over RM320mil in donations has been collected for over 500 schools to help them implement their development plans and improve their facilities to promote education for the children, says Carlsberg Malaysia managing director Soren Holm Jensen. “We’re very proud we have been doing this for 22 years and we have set ourselves a target to reach RM500mil by 2015,” he tells StarBizWeek. Last year, the campaign managed to raise over RM17mil, Jensen says.
“It’s a big show featuring some of Malaysia’s up and coming (Chinese) talents. There are no strings attached in that people who attend can choose to donate money for the betterment of the schools. If they don’t donate, they get treated to a great show anyway.”