THE LAUNCH OF DAHDERMA.MY

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG YAB TUAN CHOW KON YEOW

FOR THE LAUNCH OF DAHDERMA.MY

 

8 July 2022

Auditorium A, Level 5, KOMTAR

 

YB Phee Boon Poh

State Executive Councillor for Environment & Welfare

Mr Tony Yeoh

CEO of Digital Penang

Members of the media,

 

Ladies and gentlemen.

Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us here today to witness the launch of DahDerma, a digital social engagement platform where you can Fundraise, Donate and Volunteer.

As mentioned by YB Phee, we hope that this platform will receive a positive response from all GLCs and NGOs and, in turn, garner an increase in civic participation from the community.

Following the pandemic, it is undeniable that the underprivileged and the needy have been hit hard. While the State Government is doing our best to address these social, welfare or even environmental needs, this is something we cannot do solely on our own.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

This, in fact, is the real crux of the matter behind the LovePenang Campaign. We need to rally everyone to be part of this and to play our respective meaningful roles to help ourselves and those around us recover as fast as we can from the impacts of the pandemic.

LovePENANG is a call to action for everyone to come together to help Penang rebuild and move forward for a brighter future ahead. Regardless of our race and religious beliefs, the uniqueness of Penang is that all of us can come forwards together as a people to promote a harmonious way of life.

LovePENANG starts from home for each of us to be family-focused, love your neighbour, and stretch out a helping hand to help others, show empathy, build a caring community. The recent rise of suicide cases has been worrying and we need to care for our family, friends and loved ones. Whenever there’s darkness, we must show light and bring hope and love to those who need them most.

Therefore, today we launch the DahDerma platform with the hope of creating greater awareness of the societal needs faced by impacted communities.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

As part of the state’s journey towards digitalisation, we believe that this online platform will be far more scalable and accessible for its users. There is no denying that today’s digital age has allowed us to be more connected and in tune with the ongoings in our country and the world.

With DahDerma’s platform which is mobile-friendly, secure and easy to use, we want to provide a reliable and trusted platform for users to participate in different forms of donation drives and volunteering for these social causes.

We hope that through DahDerma, Penang will be a step closer in achieving ‘A family-focused, green and smart state that inspires the nation’. Let us join forces to champion change for a better tomorrow for a Penang which we all love.

Thank you.