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.”

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.

A collaboration between Malaysian Skin Foundation (MSF) with 32 undergraduates from Bachelor of Communications (Honours) Public Relations from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Kampar Campus is established to organise a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project named, DermaHope. The soft launching ceremony was held at UTAR Heritage Hall Building (Block A), on 31 March 2023 from 2 pm to 4 pm. 

There are 130 participants attended the soft launching ceremony, including the Founding Chairperson of Malaysian Skin Foundation (MSF), Dr. Agnes Heng Yoke Hui, Dato’ Dr. Sushil Kumar Ratti s/o Satiapal representing the Board of Trustees of MSF, Dr. Lee Lai Meng representing of UTAR President, Ir. Professor Dato’ Dr. Ewe Hong Tat, Project Director, Elaene Loo, sponsors, stakeholders, and committee members.

We have shared the same goals, which is to promote our foundation, Malaysian Skin Foundation (MSF) to more Malaysians, and to highlight the issues of unmet healthcare and sociological needs of individuals who suffer from skin diseases. Therefore, the soft launching ceremony was a success with informative and interesting sessions with the UTAR staff and students, such as multimedia presentations, souvenir giving session, gimmick session, and QnA session.

Dr. Agnes Heng, Founding Chairperson of MSF mentioned in her speech: “In Malaysia, we have seen a rise in the number of skin diseases, and it is a significant public health concern; As such, MSF is committed to addressing this issue and making a positive impact on the lives of those affected by skin diseases, through providing a subsidy scheme to help defray the cost of treatment by promoting education, awareness, and research”. In Malaysia, we have seen a rise in the number of skin diseases, and it is a significant public health concern. For instance, the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) has risen from 9.5% in 1994-1995 to 12.6% in 2002-2003, indicating an increase of 0.49% every year.” She also wants to thank the organizing committees for organizing this meaningful CSR project to help those in need and at the same bring a great impact to the community.

MSF in collaboration with Persatuan Dermatologi Malaysia (PDM), organised a Patient Awareness Day in conjunction with its soft launch on 17 December 2022 at the Main Auditorium, Hospital Tunku Azizah, Kuala Lumpur.

The event was attended by the public as well as representatives from the various advocacy groups such as Psoriasis Association of Malaysia, Psoriasis Association of Johor, DEBRA Malaysia, Persatuan Ekzema Malaysia, PEKIM and Hidradenitis Suppurativa Support Group.

The event started with speeches by Dr Agnes Heng, Founding Chairperson of MSF, and Dr Sharifah Rosniza, representing Dr Sabeera Begum, President of PDM, followed by the soft launch, witnessed by prominent dermatologists such as Dr Suganthi Thevarajah, Head of Dermatology Services, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Dato Dr Noor Zalmy Azizan, Dr Azura Mohd Affandi, Dr Benji Teoh, Dr Sharifah Rosniza as well as En Mohd Faiz Abdullah, member of the Board of Trustees of MSF and En Jasni Abdul Jalil, secretary of MSF.

This was followed by a series of talks on challenging skin diseases like psoriasis, eczema, hidradenitis suppurativa and epidermolysis bullosa by Dr Azura, Dr Benji, Dr Kartini and Dr Deidre respectively.

Free skin checks were also provided by the dermatology trainees of Hospital Kuala Lumpur. The event concluded with presentation of mock cheques to the various patient support group as gesture of appreciation by Dr Agnes Heng.

The event was supported by Zuellig Pharma as the Gold sponsor, Sanofi as the Bronze sponsor, as well as Novartis, Hyphens and Ego Pharm while Abbvie provided secretariat support.