Wan shows his profile on the Malaysian Heroes website during his visit to The Borneo Post office.
KUCHING: Hope Place has been shortlisted for AmBank Group’s #MalaysianHeroes, an initiative that lets the public vote for a good Samaritan who will receive RM8,888.
Expressing his delight at The Borneo Post office this week, Hope Place founder Kelvin Wan said the good news came out of the blue.
“Hope Place is happy to be part of it. I’m not sure who nominated us, but I do hope that Kuching folk will help us win by voting for us. If we win, we can help more people.”
Hope Place is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) set up with the purpose of helping the needy and the underprivileged in Kuching and the surrounding areas.
Although formally registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in February last year, Wan began his journey of hope in 2010, when he was moved to help a family he met during a rescue and relief operation with another NGO.
After forking out his own money to buy essentials for the family, he was approached by more families in similar dire straits.
For several months, Wan was supplying basic necessities such as rice, cooking oil and biscuits to five families.
His church members and friends got in on the act after realising what he was doing, providing items that would be delivered to recipient families, as well as helping him with visits, interviews and delivery.
The group gathered enough momentum to make it official in 2013.
Hope Place makes delivery once every two months; providing 80 families with basic necessities to last until the next delivery.
It costs around RM15,000 to provide for all their recipients.
Wan said Hope Place was the only East Malaysian NGO to be shortlisted, making this even more of an honour for a group that is not even one-year-old.
Other NGOs shortlisted for #MalaysianHeroes are Global Street Mission, Pertiwi Soup Kitchen, OrphanCARE, and Malaysian Independent Animal Rescue (MIAR).
Votes can be cast once daily at http://malaysian-heroes.com until Jan 26.