Selangor, 22 June 2019 – The Budimas Charitable Foundation, in partnership with Toys”R”Us Malaysia, launched the 8th edition of Budimas Children’s Library which will act as both a library and an education hub for over 200 children of the Kampung Orang Asli Sungai Melut’s community. The opening of this library is made possible via truly remarkable Toys”R”Us year-end ‘Gift Wrapping’ campaign that took through 2017 and 2018 consecutively.
Budimas and Toys”R”Us aim to provide a common place for the children to study, revise, learn, read and do their school work, in the hopes that the children will cultivate an interest towards education in the comfort of their own village. The Toys”R”Us Malaysia year-end ‘Gift Wrapping’ campaign that took place through 2017 and 2018 raised a total amount of RM 194,393.89 by offering customers a gift wrapping service for a nominal fee of RM2.00.
“We are most grateful for this partnership with Toys”R”Us Malaysia, who has been a long-time supporter of our works at Budimas. Their year-end ‘Gift Wrapping’ campaign is truly a remarkable one as not only did they manage to raise almost RM 100,000 within a span of two months in both the years, but they also managed to get the public to join hand-in-hand to actualise this library for the benefit of less fortunate children. The Budimas Children’s Library project was an initiative that began 5 years ago aiming to provide education opportunities for the children of Orang Asli communities in Malaysia by establishing educational facilities like this library,” said Anne Rajasaikaran, Principal Officer of The Budimas Charitable Foundation.
She added, “Budimas hopes that via this effort, we are able to help the children of Kampung Sungai Melut to place importance towards their education and contribute to the creation of a literate future generation.”
With the addition of this newly launched library, Budimas has built a total of 8 libraries in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. The other 7 libraries are located in Kampung Orang Asli Bukit Kepong (Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan), Kampung Orang Asli Guntur (Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan), Kampung Orang Asli Langkap (Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan), Kampung Orang
Asli Sg Lalang (Selangor) and Kampung Orang Asli Paya Lebar (Hulu Langat, Selangor), Kampung Orang Asli Tanjung Sepat (Kuala Langat, Selangor) and Kampung Orang Asli Bukit Bangkong (Sepang, Selangor). Budimas also hires local librarians whom oversees the daily operations of the libraries. The library operates from Monday to Friday from 2pm to 7pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm whereas on Sundays and public holidays it is closed. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) classes are also held on weekends at the library to further enhance the learning experience of the children.