Press Conference @ Rumah KIDS

A press conference for A Piece Of Hope Chapter 6 was held on 9^th June 2012 at Rumah KIDS in Klang. The press that came were Sin Chew, Oriental Daily and Star. In attendance also were 12 APOH committee members and supporters along with the Chairman of Rumah KIDS, Mr. Henry Pillai, and his staff members.

Cheque presentation to the amount RM40,000

The following is an excerpt of the press release:

Klang, Selangor – Year after year and in its 6^th year running now, a group of avid Mt. Kinabalu climbers who aptly call themselves A PIECE OF HOPE (APOH), will scale one of the highest mountains in South East Asia come July for a charitable purpose. The APOH climbing group totalling 200 climbers this year is maybe one of the largest climbing contingents to climb up Mt. Kinabalu. Interestingly, some of APOH’s group members have climbed up Mt. Kinabalu more than twelve times consecutively.

In the past five years of climbing Mount Kinabalu for charity, APOH has helped to raise more than RM760,000 for various children support type NGOs in and around the Klang Valley. Last year, they managed to raise a whopping RM220,000 for Persatuan Kanak-Kanak Istimewa Hulu Langat. Following these successes year after year, they are again climbing for charity and this time to benefit an NGO called, Persatuan Rumah Kanak-Kanak Ini Disayangi or better known as Rumah KIDS.

RM40,000 collected from all climbers

The children of Rumah KIDS, Klang

Mr Ting Ted Sun the fund raising charity event organiser for APOH climbers says, “Last year’s fund raising effort was just unexpected in terms of total donation collected which came out to be well over RM220,000. It is by far our most successful effort in all of the 5 years climbing for charity. When we set the target last year, we were quite pessimistic at first about reaching our target due to slowdown of the economy and rising inflation. We were thinking that most people will stinge in giving but we were totally wrong based on the outcome. I am truly touched by the generosity of those who gave in these trying times. This year as we embark again on raising funds, we want to challenge ourselves by setting target at RM1,000,000. This is to meant that we will help to raise RM240,000 for Rumah KIDS and if we reach this figure, we would have raised RM1,000,000 for the last 6 years of our A PIECE OF HOPE charity climbs. We are confident in doing this as our efforts have been very well received and known more widely now since starting APOH in 2007.

Lead climber, Mr Jimmy Lim, indicated that they have 200 climbers again this year and will be making the climb from 14 to 18 July 2012. Climbers will be flying into Kota Kinabalu from all over the country including Singapore. Mr. Jimmy Lim added that some climbers from Singapore are also emulating APOH’s effort by organising their own fund raising program in Singapore. Jimmy Lim whom has climbed Mt. Kinabalu for 12 times, said that the climb will be in two stages again like last year, each stage will have 100 climbers. He further adds that the jigsaw puzzle pieces will not be assembled at the summit due to the two stages climb arrangement but will be assembled at Laban Rata. Assembling it at Laban Rata will also be easier as the weather at the peak is quite unpredictable.

Group photo at press conference