General Interest
Run with us, if you want to help baby sri and friends lead a normal life
Siemens Malaysia to raise money for the underprivileged through its 5th annual charity run – the Siemens Run
Kuala Lumpur, Jun 23, 2009
From behind, a glimpse of baby Sri sleeping looks like any healthy 8 months old baby; having a blissful shut eye in slumber land. However, when this curly haired bundle of joy turns around, shock and horror, or even sadness usually greets those around her, as Sri suffers from a chronic cleft palate, lip and nose dysmorphism. The disability does not only leave her with a disfigured face, but also denies her the simple function of sucking milk through a feeding bottle.
To make matters worse, she hardly has any vision, as she has no left eye and her right cornea is blocked. She can only hear with her right hear, as there is no ear drum existing on her left side.
Sri is one of the many unfortunate disabled children from the Taman Megah Home for Handicapped and Disabled Children who need the attention and help from Malaysians to pull through each day. Bearing this in mind, Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd has selected the home as one of the three beneficiaries of the Siemens Run 2009, to be flagged off at Dataran Merdeka on July 19th.
"She has a problem crawling, turning and sitting due to the growing size of her head. She can only feed through a feeding tube, which needs to be changed fortnightly. Under the doctor’s advice, her parents decided to send Sri to our home to be taken care of as they do not have the means. She has been with us since she was a month old. Sri’s parents do visit her but there are many kids with us whose parents have just abandoned them here. We take care of these kids too,” said Baskin, the administration manager of the home.
Sri’s cleft palate, lips and nose is operable, but the condition of her head will still need to show some improvement before she can proceed with an operation. Currently, the home has a total of 128 multiracial residents ranging from babies to adults; suffering from disabilities such as Down syndrome, dwarfism syndrome, apeth ayndrome and autistic cerebral palsy.
This year, Siemens has screened and identified three charitable beneficiaries; all of whom shoulder big dreams for their respective homes or organisation. The other beneficiaries are the SM Pendidikan Khas Cacat Penglihatan in Setapak and the National Autistic Society of Malaysia in Sentul.
Apart from targeting to cross the 4,000 mark again this year in terms of participation, Siemens Run 2009 will channel 100 per cent of proceeds collected towards these charities.
"In times of this softening economy, we need to continue helping the underprivileged as they too are part of this crisis and need everyday Malaysians and corporate companies to help them to survive. The Siemens Run is open to all individual and corporate companies alike who would like to share our dream of helping unfortunate children like Sri and many many more,” said President & CEO Siemens Malaysia Tan Sri Rainer Althoff.
The main categories include the 10km Men and Women Open (18 years & above), Men Junior Veteran (40-49 years), Men Senior Veteran (50 years & above); 7.5km Women Veteran (35 years & above), boys and girls (13 under 18) and the 3.5km Dream Run (open category).
The race has so far received good support from co-sponsors Crocs, Mentholatum Deep Heating Rub, hooha.asia, Men’s Health and Shape magazine, Milo, 100 Plus, Nature’s Valley, Nivea and Reebok; who are the official sportswear.
“We succeeded in more than 4000 participants last year and we hope the number will continue to increase this year. It is a run designed with everyone in mind. I hope that everyone will register and be part of this dream to raise money for charity,” added Tan Sri Rainer Althoff.
Participants of Siemens Run 2009 also have the opportunity to run away with attractive prizes totalling RM27,100. The first five winners in each category will receive a trophy, while medals will be presented to runners who finish 6th to 150th place. All runners who complete the race will receive a certificate.
To assists participants in gearing up for the run, Siemens is conducting running clinics by national coach P.Sidamparam at the Lake Gardens on July 11th at 8am.
Entry forms for further details on Siemens Run 2009 can be obtained from www.siemens.com.my/siemensrun2009. The entry fee for individual runners is RM10, except for the boys’ and girls’ categories, which is RM5. For the Corporate Team category, the minimum entry fee is RM2,000 for a team of 5 participants, and RM5,000 for a corporate box. Forms and fees should be submitted to the FTAAA office at Tingkat 2, Wisma OCM, Jalan Hang Jebat, 50150 Kuala Lumpur (03-7874 8488). For online registration, please visit www.hooha.asia
This press release has been published Corporate Communications Department, Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd.
Your contact at Siemens Malaysia:-
Ms Vasanthe Narayanasamy
Head, Communications
DL: 03 -7952 4180
M: 012 – 315 0515
Email: vasanthe.narayanasamy@siemens.com
Ms Ranjini T
Project Manager
DL: 03-7952 5164
M: 017-294 5717
Email: ranjini.thangaraju@siemens.com
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