Kam presents a memento to Fatimah, witnessed by Rosey (second right), Rizal (second left) and others. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING (April 3): Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd has officially extended its apology to the Ministry for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development for the oversight in information about the bank’s social funding campaign recently.
Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah accepted the apology from the Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd delegation, led by group chief executive officer Kelle Kam.
Deputy Minister Datuk Rosey Yunus and Alliance Islamic Bank Bhd chief executive officer Rizal Il-Ehsazan Fadil Azim were also present.
The bank, in an online promotional post for its campaign ‘Feed a Child Today. Your Donation Fights Hunger, Nourishes Dreams’ last month, said about 84 per cent of Sarawakian children were undernourished – a statement that prompted a response by Fatimah, who called it ‘shocking’.
“According to that post, 84 per cent of children in Sarawak are malnourished.
“However, looking at data from the National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) conducted by the Institute for Public Health Malaysia in 2016 and 2022, there’s a decline in the prevalence of stunting among children, from 23.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent, height-for-age; and wasting, from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent, weight-for-height.
“The indicators used were ‘stunting’ and ‘wasting’, in terms of percentage – very different (from the bank’s campaign headline).
“So for today, Alhamdulillah, we have received a more precise information, compared our data and reached an understanding – we forgive them (Alliance Bank),” said Fatimah during a press conference held at Bangunan Baitul Makmur II in Petra Jaya here yesterday.
During the discussion between both sides, the bank had proposed to the ministry a number of collaborative arrangements including organising entrepreneurship programmes for women, and also financial literacy programmes for children based on age groups.
“We welcome more corporate bodies to collaborate with us in holding programmes that would benefit the community,” said Fatimah in response.
The meeting also incorporated a simple handing-over of duties between outgoing permanent secretary to the ministry Noriah Ahmad and her successor Datu Felicia Tan.