Shah Alam, 27 September 2021 – In the shared fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Carlsberg Malaysia has pledged RM1.6 million for the second consecutive year via its ‘Safer Schools’ campaign to provide a safer learning environment as students and teachers resume physical classes in October.

This year’s campaign comes on the heels of the announcement by the Ministry of Education that physical classes will resume on 3 October in phases to avoid further learning loss and increased challenges for home-learning with a priority for students’ safety on school grounds.

Stefano Clini, Managing Director of Carlsberg Malaysia, said, “At Carlsberg Malaysia, we stand fast on our purpose of Brewing for a Better Today and Tomorrow for the communities we operate in. While Malaysia has had excellent progress for vaccinations toward herd immunity, there is still a high degree of hesitance and uncertainty amongst parents and teachers for the resumption of physical classes. Our Safer Schools campaign aims to alleviate these fears and mitigate infection risks with our contribution that complements strict health and safety procedures in our joint efforts with educators, parents, and the Ministries of Education and Health against COVID-19 for safer learning environments.”

In response to the ministry’s focus for the safe reopening of schools, Carlsberg Malaysia is upgrading its contribution this year with ISRAK Solution’s contact-free, facial-recognition infrared thermometers to help schools digitalise attendance for contact tracing and efficiently monitor students’ temperatures upon arrival. The brewer is also partnering with WonderKlean, a CUCKOO Healthy Home brand under CUCKOO International (MAL) Sdn Bhd to provide full disinfection services for schools with reported COVID-19 positive cases within 48 hours.

In total, Carlsberg Malaysia’s RM1.6 million commitment covers a contribution of 622 facial-recognition infrared thermometers and disinfection services for up to 100 schools.

In addition to contributions in-kind, this year’s campaign will be launched with a catchy Safer Schools song with lyrics in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil performed by local artistes and social media influencers Elica Paujin, Han Xiao Aii, and Rabbit Mac. The video features simple dance moves easily learnt and taught by teachers and parents of school-going children to inject a degree of fun and interactivity to the teaching of personal hygiene and protection measures against COVID-19.

Pearl Lai, Corporate Affairs Director of Carlsberg Malaysia, commented, “Prolonged school closures have impacted schoolchildren’s learning, health and well-being with UNICEF estimating a staggering in-class learning loss of 1.8 trillion hours since the global pandemic began. Our donation, coupled with the creation of this song with music video, aims to address both the calls for classes to resume and the inevitable anxiety by focusing on the positive measures we all can take in our shared fight against the pandemic. Through this simple song and dance that can be performed with friends and teachers at school, schoolchildren can enjoy a simple stress-reducing workout, learn about the importance of personal hygiene and pandemic-defence measures, and ultimately promote good physical and mental health.”

Safer Schools is a continuation of the brewer’s extraordinary Safer Together initiatives in response to the needs of communities and stakeholders impacted by the pandemic since last year. During the 2020 campaign, disinfection services for schools in pandemic ‘red zones’ and over 2,000 handheld thermometers were given to more than 1,400 Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools nationwide, benefitting an estimated 1 million schoolchildren and receiving overwhelming response and encouraging feedback from educators, parents and members of the public.

Carlsberg Malaysia’s Safer Schools campaign is open to applications from public primary schools (Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan, Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina and Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil) in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Applications for the facial-recognition infrared thermometers are open from 27 September 2021 to 11 October 2021, whilst applications for disinfection services can be made in the event COVID-19 positive cases are reported at schools.

Schools interested to apply are required to obtain consent from their respective President of the Board of Governors or Parent-Teacher Associations and submit applications via forms available at CarlsbergMalaysia.com.my/Covid-19/Safer-Schools-2021.

For more information, contact Andel Khoo (019-356 3909 / [email protected]) Ng Choon Siang (019-243 6876 / [email protected]) or Nicholas Tan (012-940 8607/ [email protected]).