Christmas is the season of giving, and employees of Intermarine Shipping & Chartering Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur lived up to this much welcomed festive tagline this Christmas season.
The 17 employees of Intermarine happily donated their annual budget set for their staff Christmas gifts to the recent victims of Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines.
The funds were directed towards to the benefit of the children affected in the deadly super storm, who are most likely fated to ‘celebrate’ Christmas in a temporary relief centre.
In early November this year, Typhoon Haiyan, known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, devastated portions of Southeast Asia, and particularly the Philippines. It is the deadliest typhoon ever recorded, killing 5,924 people in its path and displacing thousands more in the Philippines alone.
Intermarine channeled the funds through the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) by paying them a visit on November 29th.
UNICEF is a United Nations Program headquartered in New York City, that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.
According to an update report (on the funds) from UNICEF to donors, it is appealing for US$ 61.5 million to aid over 5 million children in the Philippines affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan.
The money will be used for water, sanitation and hygiene; child protection, health and nutrition, and education of the unfortunate children.
“Christmas is a celebration for and mostly enjoyed by children, and what happened in the Philippines is extremely unfortunate. Watching the news and seeing the devastation & suffering where people, including children, don’t even have food and water and have lost everything including their family members is terrible. Many of us in the office are parents, or uncles and aunts, and no one had any second thoughts when the suggestion was put forth to ‘sacrifice’ their Christmas gift to help the children affected by the typhoon,” said Christian Andersen, the Managing Director of Intermarine in Kuala Lumpur.
Christian prefers to keep their modest sum of donation private, emphasizing that it’s the thought and effort that counts.
“Our hope is to inspire other corporations to emulate this good deed in light of this joyous season. Here we are being very lucky as we enjoy nice dinners, gifts and get-togethers with our families on Christmas, but families in our neighboring country have lost everything and it is always the kids that suffer the most”, added Christian.
To maintain some of their year-end traditions as a team, Christian treated the team and families with their annual company Christmas dinner.
Danish Scan-Trans Holding A/S and U.S. based Intermarine merged in August last year. The companies merged their operations under Intermarine name, bringing the best of both cultures and businesses into a company focused on delivering industry-leading service and providing custom solutions to their global customers.
At the Kuala Lumpur office, the company has 17 employees – a majority of five Danes, and a German, Russian, Ukrainian and Chinese forming the foreign talent scene, with eight Malaysians also making-up the strong team.
True Christmas Spirit. Well done Intermarine Kuala Lumpur and Merry Christmas to all of you too!