8th April 2023, a colouring competition was held at Kampung Baru Sungai Durian, Tanjung Tualang, from 9:30 am to 12 pm, for children aged 7-12 years old in conjunction with spreading awareness and support to skin disease patients among new village residents. 

The objectives of the competition are to create awareness about skin diseases among primary school students in Kampung Baru Sungai Durian and to obtain exposure for the Grand Launch and Charity Dinner of the Malaysian Skin Foundation among residents of Kampung Sungai Durian. 

Everyone is welcomed to participate, and there are 20 participants who took part in DermaHope Colouring Competition and are categorized into Group A (7-9 years old) and Group B (10-12 years old). The children and villagers were happy as the DermaHope committee members organized games for the children and entertained them with dance performances.

One of the villagers mentioned that: “Our grandchild is one of the participants in this colouring competition. She says the event is fun as she dances and plays some minigames. Last year, students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) also held a colouring competition for children at the U-Liang library. It is great to see UTAR students hold an event here this year. The arrival of UTAR students makes this place bustle with excitement and noise.”

Journey To The Hope is a roadshow organized by the DermaHope committee members, where they have visited 6 districts in Malaysia including, Kampar, Georgetown, Sitiawan, Taiping, Ipoh, and lastly Kuala Lumpur, starting from 15 March 2023 till 6 April 2023. Throughout the roadshows, street interviews are conducted with the public to collect their opinions about Malaysian Skin Foundation (MSF), and skin disease issues in Malaysia. The main goals of this roadshow is to raise awareness among Malaysians about this issue and to promote MSF.

Publicity was gained through the handcrafted props by the committee members, such as their own mascots, which is a skin tissue named “Skin Hero” and “Skin Warrior”. They interacted with the public throughout their journey, and it attracted a lot of attention.

More than 50 people were interviewed throughout the roadshows, and we acknowledged that Malaysians are very supportive towards MSF, and willing to help the skin disease patients. However, some of them are still lack in knowledge about the seriousness of skin disease nowadays. 

Based on the street interviews conducted, one of the interviewees, Tan says: “I have no idea about skin diseases, as I think skin disease is not a serious disease compared to cancer and other diseases”.

Amirul mentioned: “I think the cost of treatment for skin diseases is about RM50 per treatment”.

Moreover, the Malaysians are also very supportive towards this campaign as well as Malaysian Skin Foundation (MSF).

Renuga mentioned: “I was recently diagnosed with one of the skin disease, autoimmune disease, where it leaves marks on my skin. So definetely I will support this kind of campaign that will help those who have facing issues on their skin”.

Fariza mentioned: “No matter what race are we, we are Malaysians, and we will support each other and assist in reducing the skin diseases in Malaysia”. “People are lack in knowledge about skin diseases compared to other diseases such as cancer, so we shall show our support in this kind of campaign”.

Kok encouraged the skin disease patients, says: “Do not give up! There are still a lot of people in this society that supports and provide assistance to you all, especially MSF.”

The Grand Launch and Charity Dinner of Malaysian Skin Foundation will be held on 29 April 2023, 5:30pm at Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral, in collaboration with the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Bachelor of Communications (Honours) Public Relations students. 

It will cost RM 5500 per table of ten pax, and RM550 per single seat. The purpose of the dinner is to fundraise for the foundation, in order to help the skin disease patients that are unable to pay for their treatment costs. There will be enjoyable performances and a delightful dinner. Expand your network, and at the same time treat yourself to a meaningful night.

For more details, please contact the secretarial of MSF via telephone: +603 8996 0700, +603 8996 1700, +603 8996 2700, or email: office@malaysianskinfoundation.org, or visit “UTAR PR CSR Project” social media page.

17th April 2023, educational talks about common skin problems and care were conducted by Dr. Leong Wei Cheng, a dermatologist from Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun. The talk aims to increase the knowledge of skin diseases and their ability to identify skin diseases among the UTAR students and new village residents. There are 2 sessions, the first session was held at UTAR Heritage Hall Building (Block A), from 9 am to 11 am. The second session was held at Kampung Baru Sungai Durian, Tanjung Tualang, from 2 pm to 4pm.