World NGO Day 2022 Feb 27 YSJB

Celebrating WND (World NGO Day)!

Yayasan Suria JB (YSJB) – Celebrating WND (World NGO Day)!

You may not be aware that today, 27th Feb of each year is a very special day for NGOs like YSJB because the United Nations Department of Global Communications has designated this day to recognize, celebrate and honour the usually unseen work of NGOs throughout the world and we (YSJB) are proud to be one of the many NGOs especially in Malaysia.

WND was first established on 27th Feb 2014 and it is the hope of the UN to align all NGOs under their United Nations Goal for Sustainable Development.

The first WND was held in Helsinki, Finland in 2014 and since then, this special day for NGOs is celebrated in 89 countries and 6 continents.

For info, IMSHA’s award is benchmarked against global standards such as United Nations and YSJB is honoured and proud to be associated with IMSHA – read on ………….

IMSHA Gets UN Malaysia Recognition

YSJB has come a long way since our inception on 14th Sept 2012 (registered with ROS – Registrar of Societies) and what a way of celebrate this auspicious day when we are 10 years ‘young’!

We have grown slowly but steadily – from an initial RM20k from my own pocket, we are now doing about RM1m yearly in monetary value – excluding ‘goodies’ donated like rice, biscuits, milk powder, etc.

In 2015, 3 years after ‘being born’, we were given 2 awards by IMSHA(Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Awards), one for Poverty & Hunger Relief (Yayasan Suria JB) under the organization category and the other for Disaster Relief(James Ho) under the individual category.

On 1st Jan 2020, LHDN (The Inland Revenue Board Of Malaysia) granted us tax exemption status for a period of 5 years.

As one of the many NGOs under the IMSHA’s umbrella contributing in our own small ways to help the Poor & Needy, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic and the recent floods, we also recognize the many contributions made by the other NGOs, each contributing in their own ways and capacities – most of the time, we leverage on each other’s strength serving our clients with L❤️ve & Humility. YSJB wishes to acknowledge the cooperation and comradeship of our fellow IMSHArians, without which we wouldn’t have achieved what we set out to do – serving society to make this world a better place to live for everyone!

Many of our readers have called me to ask how to become an NGO/volunteer.

You don’t need any qualifications or anything. You just need PASSION AND A WILLINGNESS TO HELP OTHERS!

At YSJB, there are many types of people helping us – those physically following me around in my Toyota Hilux 4WD, those cooking for us, those manning our office at 107, Jalan Bakawali 50, Taman Johor Jaya (JB), those helping us to place our donation boxes at shops, those giving us free services(helping us to get discounts from suppliers, serving our Toyota Hilux at discounted rates, etc), our donors(cash/kind), those praying for our safety as we move around daily, those calling us to give us ideas/suggestions how to improve and run the Foundation and the list goes on and on.

Just give us a call and we will be too please to accommodate you in some areas of the work in serving the Poor & Needy – we always mix fun with work and so far, we have many repeated volunteers. All are welcome!

Just a call and we welcome you into this unique world of volunteerism!

Today, our volunteers are all over – one group feeding the temples, Orang Aslis, Old Folks Homes, the other group (with me) zig zagging across JB from Taman Tun Aminah, Taman Universiti, Taman Permas Jaya, Taman Sri Pulai and Taman Cahaya Masai in Pasir Gudang – bringing dry/wet food run(barang dapur) to 6 families.

Helping to put a child into kindergarten because the single mum could not afford and the smiles on the little girl’s face.

Helping to bring preloved items, in this case bicycles, to a young boy and the smiles of the boy and mother lighted up – such are the joys which bring satisfactions, simple acts of love, unmeasurable impacts on someone else’s life!

What a day it has been – many hungry stomachs, many smiles, many happy faces & many satisfied volunteers with lots of joy, happiness that money can’t buy – this is our pride and satisfaction knowing that our clients are just a little better off because NGOs like us care!

NGOs like us don’t get tired out. Why? Because of passion, we get happiness which gives us lots of energy (mental energy) and this mental energy drives us on and on and on. A 18-hour trip when we go on an outstation is normal without feeling tired because of this mental energy which see us through.

It is impossible to describe in words, you got to be in the midst of the action to feel, to experience the ‘energy’, the ‘ecstasy’ and the ‘joy’!