TO keep Covid-19 cases under control in the country, home improvement retailer, MR D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad has extended its free test kit programme to undergraduates in Sabah and Sarawak under the "#DIY4Universiti: Sentiasa Berwaspada, Tanggungjawab Bersama" programme.
MR D.I.Y has contributed 29,000 test kits each to both Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, to be distributed to its undergraduates. It also extended 14,000 kits to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, which is earmarked as a Covid-19 treatment hospital, and another 14,000 to the Sabah State Health Department to be distributed to all government health clinics across Kota Kinabalu.
With the help of Soroptimist International Kota Kinabalu (SIKK), MR D.I.Y. distributed a further 4,000 plus test kits to organisations in need, including schools, care homes and retirement homes.
Commenting on the initiative, MR D.I.Y. Group's head of marketing, Alex Goh, says the "#DIY4Universiti: Sentiasa Berwaspada, Tanggungjawab Bersama '' programme aims to remind undergraduates to test regularly and to make testing accessible, so that they keep their university communities safe.
" We initiated the #DIY4Universiti programme in October 2021, as students started to return to campuses post-pandemic, and we are now extending it to Sabah and Sarawak as we believe it is important for undergraduates to remain safe so that they can keep learning."
The company's outreach programmes to help stem the resurgence of Covid-19 have been effective because they have had excellent support from universities, Soroptimist International Kota Kinabalu, as well as local organisations, he adds.
The #DIY4Universiti initiative is one in a series of collaborations between MR D.I.Y. and higher learning institutions designed to help undergraduates re-settle into campus life following the prolonged pandemic lockdown.
Previous editions of the programme include the distribution of sanitisers, face masks and other aid to students in Universiti Malaya and Universiti Tuanku Abdul Rahman in October and November 2021 respectively, as well as the distribution of cash aid to 12,000 Universiti Malaya students in November-December 2021. Between June to November 2022, 10 universities in Peninsular Malaysia were provided with free test kits to keep their university communities safe.