Mercy Relief (MR) marks seven years of humanitarian service in the region this year in uplifting the lives of Asia’s poor and disaster-stricken communities, including the ongoing relief efforts in floods-hit Pakistan and, tsunami and volcano-stricken Indonesia. As part of its tradition, it gathered its key stakeholders -comprising donors, partners, volunteers and supporters – for its Stakeholders’ Day – Golf & Dinner 2010, to share on its paths and progress over the last three years and its pitch for the future. Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo graced the event as the Guest-of-Honour.

Charity Golf Tournament

(Advisor to MR and Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi, who was the host of the day, pitched in with his putt and participated in the golf game.)

Over 100 individual and corporate supporters kick-started the day by pitching their putts to raise funds for MR’s expansionary efforts to strengthen its resource capacity and response capability to better address humanitarian crises and risk mitigation in Asia through a charity golf tournament. Advisor to Mercy Relief and Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi teed off the golf event, which eventually raised over S$200,000 to support the NGO’s humanitarian work. Moving away from the conventional practice of providing luxury rewards for achievements on the green, Mercy Relief earmarked its two-wheeled humanitarian innovation, the pedal-powered iWater filtration system as the Hole-in-One prize.

(Replacing the usual luxury car displays with a pedal-powered water system was a refreshing change for the veteran golfers.)

Instead of driving away a luxury sedan in comfort, as do most Hole-in-One prize winners, the winner would instead be the ‘driver of comfort’ – in having the privilege to select a beneficiary for MR to deploy the system to.

Stakeholders’ Dinner

Later that evening, MR’s Chairman T K Udairam presented the Organization’s 7th Year PITCH to its stakeholders with a focus on the Relevance & Responsibility of Corporate Humanitarian Engagement, given the increased occurrences of natural disasters in the region. Mr Udairam proposed that “like NGOs, corporations generally have a long and intimate history with various communities in the countries where they operate their businesses. Hence corporations from the various industries can and should contribute relevant and appropriate technology, products, expertise, service and networks to support humanitarian activities. Assets and services that are in line with humanitarian principles and practices should be made available to help maintain the sanctity and sanity of humanity.” In its effort to establish corporate partnerships that can further enhance the emerging amalgamated dual-sector humanitarian response in the region, and in tandem provide added impetus for holistic corporate philanthropic commitment contributing to the growth of the humanitarian sector, Mr Udairam revealed that MR has a comprehensive package for corporate engagement which include presentations and seminars to trigger and engage their social senses, and to ignite new perspectives, understanding and appreciation of the mechanics of humanitarian work.

MR received a boost of encouragement for its humanitarian services by one of its strongest and long-time social institutional partners, when the Singapore Soka Association (SSA)’s General Director Ong Bon Chai presented the Award of Honour to the organization.

(SSA’s General Director presenting the award to MR Chairman with Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo as witness of yet another important milestone in the growth of MR.)

The award was conferred upon MR by Soka Gakkai’s Honorary President Dr Daisaku Ikeda, in recognition of its distinguished achievements in making significant contributions to the promotion of peace, culture and education whilst sharing the aims and ideals of the Soka Gakkai’s movement for human happiness and peace. Mercy Relief’s plans to further expand its operations across Asia also received widespread endorsement from the Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo when he conveyed the nation’s jubilation and appreciation to the Organization for putting Singapore on the humanitarian map as Singaporeans’ conduit of compassion.

MR also paid tribute to its many stakeholders that evening by highlighting their contributions in a video and presented certificates of appreciation to the corporate partners that had sponsored the golf and dinner event.

MR would like to thank the following partners who helped us make the event possible:

– Standard Marine & Oil Services Pte Ltd 

– Golden Season Pte Ltd

– Visual Studio Singapore Pte Ltd

– Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

– Glowtec Environmental Group

– CSM Academy International

– Skychem Pte Ltd   

for supporting the event,

– Keppel Club

for your support as the event venue,

– Singapore Soka Association

for your support, memorable performances and assistance in providing videography and photography services,

  

-West Shooterz

for your photography services,

– Temasek Polytechnic Design School of Moving Images

for producing the Mercy on 7 video,

– All volunteers that helped out throughout the event

– All golfers and guests that attended the event

Stakeholders’ Day 2010 – A tribute to our stakeholders. Thank you for accompanying us through our humanitarian journey!

About Mercy Relief

Mercy Relief is a Singaporean humanitarian organisation which engages in both disaster relief and sustainable development programmes. It was established in 2003 as an independent non-governmental humanitarian charity responding to the human tragedies in Asia. Mercy Relief’s aid programme focuses on providing timely and effective assistance to disaster-stricken communities and has maintained the delivery of emergency aid within 72 hours from the point of appeal for assistance.  

In the past 12 years, Mercy Relief has disbursed over S$32 million in aid across 40 disaster relief and 53 sustainable development initiatives. Mercy Relief has impacted an aggregate of 2 million lives in 24 countries and areas, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal,  Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Yemen.

For more information, you may call us at 6514 6322 or email corporateaffairs@mercyrelief.org

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