In late January 2020, the first case of COVID-19 cases was identified in Malaysia. Since then what started as an unknown, far-from-home epidemic has killed more than a thousand lives and infected close to 300 thousand people in Malaysia, and counting.
The economic impact of having a strict measure to prevent the outbreak such as Movement Control Order (MCO) has effectively increases the unemployment rate, halt the influx of fresh graduates into the workforce and not to mention, put a barrier to low income earners from continuing their effort to earn an income. Although the government quickly announces incentives and allowances, mostly to the B40, but those in M40 are not so lucky. Professionals who lost their jobs often find themselves cash-strapped fairly quickly when the income stopped due to mortgage commitments, car loans, credit card debt and etcetera. We should not brush aside the fact that M40, just like the B40, mostly did not have sufficient savings.
With that in mind, the SPE Kuala Lumpur Section initiated the Pandemic Relief Fund, with the aims to highlight the plight affecting professionals and students in the oil & gas industry who were affected by the pandemic. As a non-profit professional organization, SPE KL pledge it's annual rebate from membership fee received in 2019 as a small token to relief their burden. Close to RM50k was distributed to 60 individuals made up of professionals and students, in a hope that other oil and gas companies will follow suit, and hopefully help out in this time of need.
To commemorate the Pandemic Relief Fund, on 23rd July 2020, SPE KL organized an Appreciation Hi-Tea at Impiana KLCC Hotel to all recipients of the fund. The main reason was to elevate awareness among operators, contractors and all players in the oil & gas industry of the impact to our fraternity, in order to stay afloat. Budget cuts, cancellation of projects and other measures have a chain-reaction that ultimately affecting professionals and students alike, who otherwise contributed to the industry.
Among our effort for the event was to highlight two individuals who managed to find a side income through direct selling and starting a project design company. Read more about them in our
LinkedIn page and
Instagram.
