A total of 1.48 million people reached across Malaysia through 169 grant partners and 222 initiatives in five Hasanah Impact Areas
Yayasan Hasanah (“Hasanah”), a foundation of Khazanah Nasional Bhd (“Khazanah”), announced having distributed RM554 million through interventions which reached 1.48 million people in Malaysia last year.
According to The Hasanah Report 2021 launched recently, this reach was through 222 projects involving collaboration with 169 grant partners made up of civil society organisations, government agencies, social enterprises and corporate Malaysia.
These efforts span five impact areas which are: education, community development, environment, arts and public spaces, and knowledge.
Dato’ Shahira Ahmed Bazari, Yayasan Hasanah Managing Director and Trustee said, “We are honoured to be able to play our part during the challenging periods of 2021, by assisting through scholarships, humanitarian relief efforts, livelihood programmes, food distribution, access to education, amongst others, by impacting various individuals in need, across all layers of society. This achievement is the result of strategic collaborations between
civil society organisations, Malaysian corporates, government agencies as well as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education.”
Among the partnerships highlighted were the Economic and Malaysian People Protection Package (PERMAI), which was established by the government to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, safeguard the welfare of the people and support business continuity. This included RM25 million allocated by the government towards the Government-Linked Companies (GLC) and Government-Linked Investment Companies (GLIC) Disaster Response Network (GRDN). Through this network, Yayasan Hasanah has disbursed RM16.5 million through 32 GLCs and corporate organisations under a matching grant, which reached 200,000 recipients.
The foundation also highlighted its role in the CERDIK initiative to address the digital learning gap for 150,000 students in primary and secondary schools in Malaysia and to pilot the future adoption of digital learning models.
Under the PRIHATIN initiative by the Ministry of Finance, Yayasan Hasanah, through the Hasanah Special Grant 2021 distributed more than RM20 million through 40 projects benefiting 37,600 individuals from all layers of vulnerable communities including the B40 income communities, the Orang Asal, the elderly, the homeless, stateless and undocumented migrants, at-risk children, women, youth and persons with special needs.
Yayasan Hasanah also disbursed RM44 million to address basic food needs by distributing cashless food aid through the Ministry of Finance’s PEMERKASA programme, benefiting 137,273 recipients nationwide to ensure basic food provisions were met for a period of three months.
“While assistance reached all states in the country, the states that saw the most initiatives were Sabah (32), Selangor (21), and Perak (18) respectively, while 82 other initiatives covered multiple states,” Shahira said.
Among the projects highlighted during the launch event include the establishment of the Secondary School Alternative Assessment (PASM) for special needs students nationwide, the PINTAR-UTAR Mental Health Programme (PUMP 3.0) educating teachers and school counsellors on mental health issues, efforts with the Orang Asli community in Pos Poi, Perak encouraging sustainable harvesting of bamboo, and the efforts of the Turtle Conservation Society of Malaysia in empowering women entrepreneurs through conservation and livelihood programmes.
“For our grant partners, look how strong we are when we work together. For all of us at Yayasan Hasanah, collaboration means the ability to contribute towards advancing Malaysia, one person at a time, across all layers of society. It is Yayasan Hasanah’s hope that we will continue to go further together with all our grant partners.”
“I would also like to thank everyone for placing their trust in Yayasan Hasanah to carry out multiple social programs and emergency aid through stimulus packages, as well as the allocated funds in Budget 2021 that allowed us to impact the lives of 1.48 million people throughout 2021.” Shahira said.
In partnership with the Ministry of Finance, the foundation is currently seeking applicants for its Hasanah Special Grant 2022 Programme, and now accepting submissions for its RM100 million worth of grants to be disbursed this year. Those interested in applying can do so at https://yayasanhasanah.org/hasanah-special-grant-2022/.
Other grants available are ArtFAS (Arts for All Seasons) for the arts, heritage and culture community, which will open for application from 1 June till 17 July 2022, as well as the Social Enterprise Seed & Growth Fund Grant 2022 which will open from 15 till 30 July 2022.
Full details of The Hasanah Report are now available online at the interactive website https://thr2021.online.
