Employee Volunteerism: CMS Community Outreach

Friday, 2 May 2008, BETONG: CMS Roads’ staff from Betong and Sri Aman braved the scorching hot sun last weekend to help build temporary shelters for six families affected by fire at Rumah Mani Panau at Pelasok, Skrang. The longhouse was devastated by fire on 9 April 2008.

Starting out early on Sunday morning (27 April 2008), Mr Jee Meng Tong, Operations Executive for Road Maintenance Unit (RMU) Betong divided the 46 volunteers into six groups, to build one shelter each.

At the end of the day, the men were proud and happy to present six new wooden shelters to the families who had previously been living in exposed conditions or with relatives and neighbours.

“Helping to construct these shelters was a very rewarding experience. The day was almost 40 degrees celcius and it was raining for a while in the morning, yet none of the volunteers were tired. Everyone enjoyed the work,” said Jee Meng Tong.

The largest of the six shelters constructed was 660 square feet and the smallest one was 160 square feet in size. Each of the temporary shelters can be used for 5 years or more.

Two weeks earlier, CMS Roads kicked off their assistance efforts by launching a donation drive among staff for the 38-door longhouse, raising RM3,547.50 in cash.

CMS Roads completed their project by collecting used blankets, sarongs, towels, bed sheets, and pillows from employees. The longhouse residents were delighted to receive these items.

Home-made delicacies by employee volunteers from CMS Cement sold like hotcakes last Sunday morning at the Sarawak Society for the Blind's (SSB) Charity Sales on 13 April 2008. Seven CMS Cement Club members took part during what is one of CMS' busiest months this year. The team reported that their stall items - boasting seven different types of Malaysian home-made cakes and delicacies - sold out within just 2 hours. Team member Ngatimah Danan said that the huge popularity of the items was "entirely unexpected" and that the team would have increased the quantity had they had any inkling of public response. CMS Cement raised approximately RM450 for the Sarawak Society for the Blind. CMS thanks Evan Krisno, Hanari Kipli, Arshad Basri, Norlinda Narawi, Qarrine Qamila and Ngatimah Danan, for their superior cooking skills and community effort!

CMS now has a business partner with benefits– one it can count on for a little extra support in some of our ‘doing good’ programmes. Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA), CMS’ joint venture partner in the Sarawak Aluminum Company (SALCO), pitched in to help CMS in the CSR cause many would call closest to our hearts: children. From March to April, employees at RTA’s offices in far-away Australia generously and swiftly donated six large boxes of high-quality picture books suited for young children and teenagers. In mid-April, CMS received a pleasant surprise when wrapped packages of books arrived smack on our doorsteps, shipped direct from sunny Down-Under. The books will be distributed between The Salvation Army children in two homes in Kuching, and the children of Kampung Stampin.

The Salvation Army Reading Programme

In 2007, CMS employees stepped in lend a hand after recognising a growing need at the Salvation Army Children’s Home in Kuching. A dedicated number of CMS Employee Volunteers gave weekly guidance in reading and writing in the English language to “adopted” tutees from the Salvation Army. The programme began with CMS’ desire to make a positive and sustainable impact on urban children within the surrounding community.

Volunteering at the Salvation Army

CMS Santa Xpress

CMS wanted to make Christmas a little merrier for some communities in 2007. The gift drive CMS Santa Xpress was launched among CMS employees located in Headquarters, Kuching. Just before Christmas, more than 100 gifts – a result of employee generosity - were handed over to the children of the Salvation Army Children’s Home and Salvation Army Boys’ Home. Each year CMS will select an organisation to benefit during Christmas time.

Sending CMS' Christmas greetings

Project Kampung Stampin

Single mother and CMS administration officer Magdelin Siput had a passion to help underprivileged families in her neighbourhood. In 2007, she single-handedly opened a free weekend tuition centre using her own limited resources for classes of 20 children at Kampung Stampin. She then appealed to CMS employees to get involved. The result? Over 300 books and 2 computer desktops complete her makeshift library today. As the sole teacher, Magdelin spends every weekend, all year round, teaching children who are unable to afford regular tuition. For her incredible community efforts, Magdelin was a recipient of the CMS Doing Good Champion Award in 2007.

Magdelin Siput with donated
books and magazines

Community Clean-Up

CMS Roads staff in Betong enlisted the help of their families for a vigorous CMS Community Outreach activity at the Batang - Saribas - Pusa ferry points on Saturday, 8 September. 

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CMS Roads Lend a Hand to Rural Schools

Employees of CMS Roads in Saratok are continuing to make helping others one of their top priorities, as once again they come to the aid of more rural folk in need.

 (Read More)

It might have been the start of the school holidays, but the teams from PPES Works, CMS Roads and CMS Pavement Tech put family obligations aside for awhile, preferring instead to focus their Saturday morning to “Do Good” at the ex-leprosy resettlement village, Kampung Sinar Baru, located some 14 km from Kuching city.

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CMS has channeled part of its pool of employee volunteers towards helping Habitat for Humanity, an organisation which builds homes for the hardcore poor. The partnership between CMS and Habitat for Humanity was formed in 2007 under Employee Volunteerism programme CMS Community Outreach.

 (Read More)

Corporate Philanthropy

CMS Group has always been known to be generous in its support for the community – whether through cash donations, through sponsorships of needy causes or events that raise awareness of a community’s need or by supporting organizations to organize events for the wider community.

This programme began in 2002 with a mission to assist the community in building family values. Our idea is that by assisting a surau or mosque with its monthly utility expenses, monies collected from the community can be used for other purposes, such as organizing more religious classes or holding other community-related events at the surau. To-date, CMS looks after 66 surau and mosques, both in urban and rural areas, throughout the state of Sarawak. The feedback so far has been very satisfying for CMS. We know that our small monthly monetary assistance has gone a long way towards helping many people from the surrounding community learn more about religion and values.

A surau adopted by CMS

As a construction outfit, safety on the site is a top priority for CMS subsidiary, PPES Works. The company is currently building the new Sarawak State Legislative Assembly complex in Kuching involving up to 600 workers on-site at any one time. With construction of the 9-storey iconic building complex in full-speed, scaffolding, steel bars and nails are everywhere in the constantly changing environment. As a pro-active measure, tool-box meetings covering safety procedures are conducted weekly and attended by all site supervisors and workers. Regular evacuation simulation exercises are also held. This includes conducting an emergency drill to bring an injured workman to safety with the use of the construction site's building crane.

Emergency evacuation simulation

CMS Cement Kuching Plant is a two time winner of the Gold Award at the nation's highest occupational safety and health competition organized by the Malaysian Society for Occupational Safety and Health (MSOSH). The award, received for two consecutive attempts, proves CMS Cement's commitment towards maintaining high safety and health standards at the work place. This philosophy is especially important to the 196 personnel who work in 3 shifts daily at the 1 million metric tonne production capacity plant. CMS Cement's comprehensive annual safety and health programmes include continuous medical surveillance and monitoring of dust emission and noise levels. A series of in-house programmes on safety and health are regularly conducted by external experts and staff team leaders. This also includes training for technical production staff working in confined spaces and training on chemical spillage.

CMS Cement's Safety Team show off their Occupational Safety and Health award

The Minister of Environment and Public Health, Sarawak, praised PPES Works for its excellent demonstration that being environmentally-friendly can be a win-win for all. What began as an in-house environmental and sustainable development campaign in 2003 by PPES Works, the construction arm of CMS, has resulted in impact been beyond expectations. Once our staff became more aware on how they can make a difference to the environment, the company made a small investment in technology to address the mountain of green and wood the company was accumulating from clearing of land sites. What followed was a useful and much needed re-cycling programme for green and woody waste; development of a team of young entrepreneurs who saw the potential of a new business from the green waste, and new organic products being introduced to the market.

PPES Works' environmental campaign was the start for the introduction of the Eco Gold Organic Compost and Fertiliser products