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GEORGE TOWN – One Hope Charity and Welfare Bhd will hand over a low-risk Covid-19 centre with 450 beds to the state Health Department today.
The centre, which caters to any spike in Covid-19 cases, is located in the Penang Island City Council’s Balik Pulau indoor air-conditioned stadium and will be operational from today.
The non-governmental organisation’s chairman, Chua Sui Hau, told The Vibes that the centre was built in collaboration with the Health Ministry.
“It is one of our charity programmes for the community, so that low-risk patients can be taken care of at a designated place.
“More than 100 volunteers took several hours to set up 450 beds, as well as covers for mattresses and pillows. They also installed water dispensers, refrigerators, fans and microwaves.”
Chua said One Hope on January 10 will help 4,200 poor and less-fortunate families by providing food baskets, which will be handed out simultaneously by 40 assemblymen.
He said RM50 vouchers for Econsave and Sunshine hypermarkets to buy food items, like rice, flour and sugar, will also be given.
Donors contributed about RM1.3 million for the project, aimed to aid those badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We will deliver the food baskets to the assemblymen before the event. They will identify the recipients and hand them out simultaneously on January 10,” Chua said.
During the conditional movement control order, One Hope had spent more than RM3.2 million to provide personal protection equipment (PPE) for frontliners at state and federal agencies.
The PPE were provided to the Penang Hospital, Seberang Jaya Hospital, both city councils and schools, among others.
The 19-year-old charitable organisation, which operates from Kota Permai in Bukit Mertajam, also has social activists Datuk Seri R. Arunasalam and Ang Beng Hock as advisers. – The Vibes, December 23, 2020
