| James Kon |
THE Sulawesi Disaster Humanitarian Fund was officially closed yesterday after collecting BND533,189.55 within three months.
A ceremony to hand over the donations to the fund was held at the Citra Budaya Hall of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) building prior to the fund’s closure.
Present at the ceremony were Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Pengiran Dato Seri Paduka Haji Bahrom bin Pengiran Haji Bahar in his role as deputy advisor to the fund; Permanent Secretary at the MCYS Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila binti Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil, who is the joint chairperson of the fund; and Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) Haji Mohd Serudin bin Haji Timbang.
The guests of honour who received the last three donations for the Sulawesi Disaster Humanitarian Fund were Minister of Religious Affairs Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Haji Awang Badaruddin bin Pengarah Dato Paduka Haji Awang Othman and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Awang Haji Aminuddin Ihsan bin Pehin Orang Kaya Saiful Mulok Dato Seri Paduka Haji Abidin, in their roles as advisors to the fund.
The last donations to the fund came from MoRA, DST Communications Sdn Bhd, Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd, and the UBD Volunteering & Charity Club.
Acting Director of Mosque Affairs Haji Amir Hisham bin Haji Masri presented BND100,307.44 to the fund on behalf of MoRA. This sum was collected from donation boxes in mosques, suraus and religious halls nationwide.
Acting CEO of DST Radin Sufri bin Radin Basiuni presented two mock cheques of BND75,706 from the SMS Brunei Prihatin Project for the Pengiran Muda Mahkota Al-Muhtadee Billah Fund for Orphans (DANA), and BND5,000 from DST Communications Sdn Bhd.
Erwienna Shafienaz binti Abu Bakar of Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd, meanwhile, handed over BND29,973 raised from SMS Brunei Prihatin.
The donation from the UBD Volunteering & Charity Club amounting to BND2,000 was presented by religious officer at the Community Service and Spiritual Unit of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) Awangku Muhd Nur Hafizan bin Pengiran Haji Hassan.
Part of these donations had already been apportioned for the construction of temporary shelters known as huntara for survivors of the deadly tsunami and earthquake which struck Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on September 28 last year.
The building effort was carried out through the ASEAN Resilient Village project handled by the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre).
Six shelter units costing a total of USD198,000 were built. Each unit is able to accommodate 12 families of five members each, or 60 occupants.
The remaining sum from the Sulawesi Disaster Humanitarian Fund donations will be used for the construction of mosques and other infrastructure in the disaster-hit areas.
Following the donation handover, Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila and members of the committee for the Sulawesi Disaster Humanitarian Fund held a closing meeting for the fund.
During the meeting, Datin Paduka Dr Hajah Norlila conveyed her gratitude to Bruneians who had made donations to the fund to help ease the suffering of survivors of the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami.