Malaysia to celebrate World Men's Day this Nov 19

She said several parties had suggested that Men's Day should also be celebrated in the country, to pay tribute to their sacrifices, just like Women's Day has been celebrated all this while.

"I have agreed to the proposal and this year on Nov 19, for the very first time we will be celebrating World Men's Day," she told reporters after the simultaneous launch of the Kembara@KPWKM and 1Malaysia Charity Tour programmes at the Lundu Sports Complex here, today.

Rohani said the ministry had also agreed with the proposal to set up a men's halfway house, especially for husbands faced with household crisis.

She said the ministry was ready to set up these centres by modifying existing buildings.

Touching on 1Azam, Rohani said it had helped 170,000 people to get out of poverty through the various socio-economic programmes implemented.

"Seventy per cent of them are women," she said, adding that they were still being assisted to expand their businesses.

Rohani also said about half a million citizens received social welfare assistance, involving costs of about RM1.5 billion each year.

She said the RM1.5 billion contribution was from the federal government, while certain states also gave their own contributions.

On the 1Malaysia Charity Tour programme, she said it would begin from Lundu and stop at several destinations in the state, namely Sri Aman, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri, before heading to Labuan, Sepanggar and Beafort in Sabah.

She said the tour would resume from Kuala Lumpur, to all states in the peninsula, and end in Bagan Datok, Perak, on April 9.