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AirAsia X Berhad • Annual Report 2014
appointed staff had to be trained to run the home efficiently
and provide proper care for the children. Without an excess of
funds itself, the NGO needed all the financial aid it could get. In
response to an appeal from TECH Outreach, AirAsia X stepped
in to provide free flights for two personnel from TECH Outreach
per month for six months beginning in August.
In the first three trips that TECH Outreach has made, it has
managed to transform the home. Fixing basic utilities such as
water and electricity supply, the children can now bathe every
day as opposed to only twice a week, and have clean clothes
to wear as these can be washed with the new water supply.
They have electricity to read and perform other activities at
night whereas, before, their evenings after 5pm were spent in
the dark. The children also have proper chairs and tables to use
for their homework and study while before they would have to
sit on the floor. In addition to being able to make these changes
with money saved from their airfare, the TECH Outreach team
was overwhelmed by the assistance provided by our station
manager in Kathmanduwhowent out of his way every time the
team entred or left Nepal.
For Trafficked and UnderprivilegedWomen & Girls
We also supported a charity campaign by lingerie company
Neubodi,
Old Bras For Cash
, that aimed to collect second-hand
bras for distribution to trafficked and other underprivileged
women, many of whom have never owned their own bra in
their lives. During the one-and-a-half month campaign, from
25 September until 2 November, the company collected 11,037
bras, of which 2,441 were flown to Kathmandu.
In Nepal, Neubodi gave some of the bras to a local NGO,
Asha-Nepal: Fight Against Human Trafficking, which helps
trafficked women start their own second-hand bra businesses.
They then visited four villages – Lanagol, Kirtipur, Chovar and
Panga – where they educated women about proper bra fit and
distributed the bras to about 400 appreciative beneficiaries.
Among the recipients was a woman in her 30s who said: “I
have to work in the paddy fields, clean the house, take care
of the children, and carry clean water home every day. I suffer
from terrible shoulder pain and backaches. I thought it was
normal, because I am getting old. I never knew by wearing a
bra with support I can stop all my aches.”
As their official flight sponsor, AirAsia X provided the Neubodi
teamwith nine free flight tickets, and 450kg of luggage weight
to ship the undergarments.
Go Team Malaysia!
Continuing to support Malaysian sporting talent, during
the year AirAsia X provided free travel for the national
women’s rugby team to Incheon for the Asian Games,
and to members of Malaysia’s leading cheerleading group
– the Awesome Legends All-Stars – to take part in the
2014 Australian All-Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF)
National Cheer and Dance Championship Finals, where
they did the nation proud by being placed fourth in the Co-
Ed Level Five Open Division.
Concert for Alzheimer’s
In December, we volunteered to be the official airline for the
“Konsert Amal DiRaja – Forget Me Not” charity concert held
at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Our sponsorship
involved providing 87 return flights from Shanghai to Kuala
Lumpur for members of the world-renowned Shanghai
Symphony Orchestra, the stars of the charity concert.
The orchestra, which was founded in 1879, is one of the
oldest orchestras in Asia. Proceeds from the concert were
channelled by the organisers to the Alzheimer’s Disease
Foundation Malaysia (ADFM), to build a new dementia
training and daycare centre for patients in Petaling Jaya.
Saving the Elephants
Finally, AirAsia X supported a heart-warming initiative by the
Burmand Emily’s Elephant Sanctuary (BEES) to raise funds for
its project in Chiang Mai, Thailand that provides a sanctuary
for retired work elephants. We donated return flights from
Australia to Kuala Lumpur for a raffles organised by BEES
which raised AUD4,000. The money has subsequently been
channelled to help retired elephant Kam Mae and her baby,
Boon, settle into their new home at the sanctuary. Both
mother and baby were in bad health, having been tied up in
the forest with no human contact. They have been leased to
BEES for two years and will remain chain-free for this time,
walking in the forest, swimming and just being elephants.
Sustainability Report
