GEORGE TOWN: YTL Foundation has handed out some 400,000 free 4G prepaid SIM cards with mobile data nationwide under its "Learn From Home" initiative since March until now.
YTL Communications chief executive officer Wing K. Lee said, understanding the challenges of online learning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, they embarked on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to ensure all students were not deprived of education during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19.
"To date, we have handed out some 400,000 SIM cards with mobile data nationwide.
"Still, this is only a needle in the haystack as we have millions of students out there," he said during a joint press conference with Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow at the latter's office in Komtar here today.
Realising the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the B40 families, he said YTL Foundation, in collaboration with YTL Communications, set up a special programme to provide free YES 4G Smartphones complete with 12 months of free YES service with 120GB of 4G data, to eligible B40 parents with school-going children across the country.
He shared his experience at a fishing village in Sabah back in March, in which he met a single mother of three, whose husband had died, leaving her. He said she did not even have a phone to go with the SIM card.
"It was then we realised the hardship faced by the B40 families, such as the woman. We then provided her with the free phone and mobile data to enable her children to participate in online learning.
"Indeed, we have touched a life, but there is still a long way to go," he added.
In Penang, under a partnership with the state, 76 families have already received free smartphones, courtesy of YTL Foundation, with the total contribution based on the completed applications valued at RM201,376.
Currently, applications from a further 148 families are being processed.
Chow, in thanking YTL for the contribution, expressed hope that the Penang government's collaboration with the private sector, such as YTL, would continue to expand and that more private entities will come on board to help the state develop and assist students.