Bringing Light and Life to the Needy

Sometimes I think a lot of charitable acts for charity-inclined events for the deserving are forced. Not forced by the organisors of such charitable events and acts but “forced” response from the public.

Let’s be honest. How many of us “give” sincerely at charitable events? Most times, we hand out our donations under batted breath. Some are even thick-skinned enough to add: “I’m here already so have to give mehhh.”

Give, but give sincerely because whatever little you give are honestly appreciated by the needy. And perhaps, because not all of us have been in a situation that the needy have been in all their lives we will not understand how even the simplest effort we make to improve their life matters.

 

Light Up is an innovative charity project started by local indie web design company Immerse. And this project, launched to commemorate the start of 2011 is heavily associated to the kind of work that Immerse creates.

The idea behind Light Up is solely to help the needy and for a start, three charitable homes – Persatuan Warga Tua & Kanak-Kanak (Kepong, KL), Sinthamani Orphanage (Jinjang, KL) and Happiness Centre (Melaka) have been brought under Immerse’s wings.

Its online portal www.immerse.com.my/lightup was created and then launched on Jan 7 as the “home” for Light Up.

How does the Light Up project works?

“It is basically getting people to send New Year greetings from the site,” explained Kerry Khoo who is the Creative Director of Immerse.

To send a greeting we first have to choose a colour for our message. This colour will take the form of a light, which is then plotted on the Malaysian map to indicate where the message comes from.

Each colour light represents a home and the more lights a home has, the more money from the company’s fund pool, is contributed to the home.

“By choosing a colour for their light, people are directly choosing a home which they feel needs support,” said Kerry.

So please spare some time and participate by logging on to the website www.immerse.com.my/lightup

In one of the pages of the website you will find a map of Malaysia and scattered all over it are the lights in the different colours indicating the number of visitors that have logged in. If you'd like to read the New Year greetings sent by these visitors, all you do is click on any area in the map and the messages will pop out.

That is all that's required by visitors - just choose the colour light to indicate which home need the most help and the rest will be done by the team from Immerse.

Your contribution will go a long way and for a good cause. It is time to give back, the way Immerse is doing after being in the business for the past seven years.

The more people know about the plight of the occupants of these homes, the better it is. And this too will be proof to Immerse that all the effort and thought they have put into the Light Up project isn’t a wasted effort.