PETALING JAYA, Dec 18 — Retired civil servant and watercolour artist Yeow Teck Chai has partnered with two charity organisations to raise RM400,000 to sustain their operations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yeow’s book titled Birds of Malaysia: An Artist’s Love consists of 120 prints of Malaysian birds in watercolour painting will help raise funds for Society For The Severely Mentally Handicapped (SSMH) as well as the Malaysian SLE Association (PSLEM).
The book project that was started last year by the artist features Malaysian birds including rare birds such as the Hornbill, Pitta and Bee-Eater among others.
As of today, a total of 1988 books have been sold for RM200 each and a balance of 513 books are yet to be sold.
While SSMH provides rehabilitation facilities to children and youths with severe mental and physical disabilities, PSLEM helps Malaysians suffering from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown cause.
Yeow told Malay Mail that 80 per cent from the sales of the books would be donated to both organisations to help them with their training programmes, and running and maintaining the centres.
“Donations and fundings are hard to come by especially amid the pandemic with many bigger organisations tight on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.
“And the book which is a product of my passion in watercolour painting can be utilised to help the two organisations with their funding so that they are able to operate as usual.”
Asked as to what fuelled his desire to donate towards the two organisations, Yeow said that doing good in helping the less fortunate is essential.
“Who thinks of the less fortunate and those who are mentally handicapped? Who thinks about what they have to go through everyday? While a lot of us are lucky to be running normal lives, the same cannot be said for everyone else.
“Some people who have been suffering from SLE go through a very hard time as it can be mentally depressing for them.
“I’m already old, there is nothing more enriching than to help others who are not as blessed as I am amid challenging times.”
According to SSMH’s president Fadillah Mohd Yakin, proceeds from the sale of the books will be a great help as the society had to cancel all their fund-raising activities this year due to the pandemic.
“Funds are needed to provide training to maximise children’s functional skills such as their motor, cognitive, communication, social and self help skills.
“Besides, the society also requires about RM35,000 monthly to maintain and run the training centre.”
PSLEM President, Dr Heselynn Hussein said that as the more funds the association has, the more it can help more patients with SLE.
“The proceeds from the book sales will be utilised to assist people suffering from Lupus.
“The disease weakens the immune system and people suffering from it are more likely to experience infection and infection-related complications because their immune system is weakened by both the disease and the medication used to treat it,” she said.
Anyone keen on purchasing the book can contact Alan Tham at 012-3418 038 or Chee at 011-1061 7672. Alternatively, the book can be purchased online via https://www.yeowtc.art/books/birds-of-malaysia.
