Gotong-Royong is a communal work which gathers people to accomplish a task mutually. In conjunction with World Refugee Day, ElShaddai Centre Berhad launched our Embrace Campaign in accordance with the gotong-royong spirit to gather different communities (refugee, undocumented, stateless, foreigner and local) to do community clean up at various places in Klang (Pusat Bandar Berkeley, Bayu Perdana, Johan Setia). Alongside the German Embassy, UNHCR, and MPK, we launched the campaign on 8 June 2024 at our community centre, Berkeley Wellness Community Centre. This campaign is a great opportunity to showcase the contribution that the refugee, undocumented and stateless communities can offer to Malaysia, the country in which they are residing through one of the many ways – environmental clean-up and improvement.
On different days (8, 22, 29 June and 13 July 2024), we had more than 200 people coming from different nationalities: Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia to clean up the environment. It was indeed a heartwarming session seeing different groups of communities working together to accomplish a task. This community clean-up indirectly empowers and develops the community to steward the environment that we are living in wisely. Moving forward, ElShaddai is considering to having a long-term and consistent partnership with MPK to continue this community clean-up effort.
On the other hand, at the same time, ElShaddai has also taken the opportunity to officially launch the community centre that we set up back in November 2023 on 8 June 2024. The purpose of the community centre is to provide a physical space and platform for all communities to support one another through encouraging interaction; to have better well-being by engaging in the healthy activities offered; and to be equipped with the different programs and trainings conducted. In this community centre, Berkeley Community Wellness Centre (BCWC), we have a conversational space, a children’s play area, a community kitchen, a community gym, and an event space. Ultimately, we want to foster, develop and improve a better holistic personhood, holistic community and holistic ecosystem to further provide a holistic community transformation.
Lastly, we are thankful to the donors and supporters who helped to make this possible: the German Embassy, TA Securities Holdings Berhad, UNHCR, churches and many kind and generous individuals.
