TUMPAT, Oct 19 – AirAsia Foundation has allocated RM335,000 for its 2015 School Preparedness Programme involving 1,179 primary school pupils in Perak and Kelantan who were affected by floods last year. AirAsia executive director, Yap Mun Ching said with the cooperation of Medical Relief Society Malaysia (MERCY Malaysia), the programme aimed to educate students to be self-prepared in the eventuality of disasters especially floods.
“The programme designed by Mercy Malaysia hopes to instill preparedness as a culture among pupils in a disaster. It included how to prepare a ‘Grab Bag’ which contains sufficient necessities for three days,” she told reporters after opening the 2015 School Preparedness Programme at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Seri Kampung Laut here on Saturday.
Also present were Mercy Malaysia Communications general manager Megawati Rashidi and SK Seri Kampung Laut headmaster Zainudin Husin. Yap said the programme had two phases in which pupils were taught to be alert to their surroundings and steps to be taken in a disaster in the first phase.
“Meanwhile in the second phase, we will carry out review training to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme for further improvement in future. The preparedness programme could be studied as a teaching programme by the Education Ministry as it had been implemented in other countries including Japan,” she said.
Twenty primary schools in the Tumpat and Tanah Merah districts are involved in the programme which is now entering the second phase while another 13 schools will undergo the second phase before year end. Meanwhile, Zainuddin said the programme which involved 40 pupils in the school was very useful to all parties in preparation for disasters especially floods.
He said they are very thankful and appreciative of the care shown by AirAsia and Mercy Malaysia. He said it is a very effective effort to prepare school children to face flood which occurs every year at the school. He added that SK Seri Kampung Laut was among the schools badly affected in the massive flood last year with sections of the school fence collapsing apart from damage to buildings and equipment.
Apart from collecting funds, AirAsia also contributes to rescue efforts nationwide in December 2014 and January 2015 by providing free flights and cargo transportation to assist rescue efforts. AirAsia flew 28 tonnes of goods comprising food, water, clothes, medical equipment for rescue organisations apart from providing free flights to 200 medical personnel and volunteers to Kelantan to assist medical teams in flood affected areas.
