Tesco, Astro Kasih launch donation drive for flood victims

Tesco Malaysia in a collaboration with Astro Kasih today launched the 'Humanitarian Aid Mission Programme' to collect donations of food supply and other necessities to help flood victims in the East Coast.

Held at the Tesco Extra in Ara Damansara here, the programme was launched by Astro Community and Corporate Affairs director Datuk David Yap together with Tesco Malaysia CEO Georg Fischer and Tesco Government Relations and Corporate Affairs director Datuk Azlam Shah Alias.

Yap said the programme was a platform to ease the public in channelling their donations.

"This could be deemed as one of the worst floods to ever hit Malaysia. Although many more are not directly affected by the floods, Malaysians are naturally concerned beings and together we strive to ease the victims' burden in any way we can," he told Astro AWANI.

The programme targets to collect 500,000kgs in food supply from all Tesco stores nationwide.

Besides food, among the essential items that can be donated include blankets, towels, disposable diapers, sanitary pads, soap, toothpaste and toothbrush.

The collected items will be flown to Kota Bharu, Kelantan using a Malindo Air aircraft before they are handed to the National Security Council for distribution to the flood victims at temporary relief centres.

Meanwhile, Tesco Malaysia has so far donated RM300,000 worth of food items which were collected since two weeks ago when the floods were seen worsening.

As for cash donations, they can be handed over at the cashier payment counters at any Tesco store, and Tesco will match the amount of every ringgit donated by the public.

The Tesco-Astro Kasih Humanitarian Aid Mission Programme will travel nationwide starting with Tesco Extra Ara Damansara, followed by Tesco Extra Ipoh, Perak, Tesco Extra Puchong, Selangor, Tesco Extra Seremban 2, Negeri Sembilan and will end at Tesco Extra Desa Tebrau, Johor.

However, members of the public can still extend help by placing their own donated goods at the designated area at all Tesco and Tesco Extra stores across Malaysia starting from today until Jan 1, 2015.

Last night, the collaboration between Tesco Malaysia and Malindo Air saw at least five tonnes of food and consumer goods being mobilised to flood victims in the East Coast.

To know more how you can help the flood victims, watch the interview: