‘Eat Right to Play Right’ Programme Kicks-Off its First Inter-Community Football Tournament

The half-day tournament united 17 teams of boys and girls aged between seven (7) and 12 years old from eight (8) urban and rural communities within Selangor and Klang Valley for a friendly game of football to showcase their skills and talents on the pitch. The tournament was divided into three different categories respectively; under 8, under 10 and under 12.

Leveraging on Malaysia’s passion for football, the ERTPR programme seeks to use the sport as an awareness-raising platform to educate children on the importance of nutrition while instilling self-discipline and sportsmanship.

With the aim to fight against child malnutrition, ZIMB joined forces with One Goal in Malaysia – a movement initiated by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), World Vision International as well as FAM – to co-execute the ERTPR programme for four (4) consecutive years as part of the company’s long-term Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.

Children from selected communities across Klang Valley, Selangor, Kelantan and Sabah have trained under the ERTPR’s Football Module and Nutritional Module on a weekly basis since the inception of the programme in December 2015. Training sessions are jointly supported and coordinated by dedicated teams from World Vision Malaysia (WVM) and football technical expertise by FAM.

The Football Module provides basic football training for the children as well as training modules for the community coaches, whereas the integrated Nutritional Module offers health checks, provisions of healthy snack, and parents’ nutritional workshops to the communities involved.

Joining the fun and cheering on the children at the tournament was Philip Smith, Chief Executive Officer of ZIMB who shared his sentiment on the company’s commitment in supporting the programme. “Eat Right to Play Right is born out of a common desire to ensure that every child has access to healthy and nutritious meals to lead an active life. I am delighted to see many happy faces today including parents and teachers, which reassures our commitment and effort in tackling child malnutrition issues. We trust this programme will continue to make a significant difference in the lives of these children and pave the way for a brighter future for them.”

Among the communities which participated in the tournament include Kelana Jaya, Ladang Batu Ampat, Desa Amal Jireh, Broga and Enggang. Apart from the football tournament, the children also took part in exciting nutrition-based quizzes and games. In the spirit of giving back to the communities, more than 30 ZIMB employees dedicated their personal time to volunteer as referees, linesmen, ball pickers and match coordinators for the tournament.

Terry Leong, Chief Executive Officer of WVM Foundation and spokesperson of One Goal in Malaysia who was also present at the event explained, “This inter-community tournament provides both community coaches and children a sense of excitement and achievement. We have observed remarkable improvements among the children particularly their sporting spirit and of nutritional knowledge in these children. We are confident that the programme will be able to meet its goal of improving the nutritional status as well as bring positive changes to these children within the targeted communities in Malaysia.”

All participating teams and their respective community coaches walked away with shopping vouchers worth RM8,500 while the winning teams under each category received sports equipment and apparel vouchers worth RM1,500. In recognition of the dedication and hard work of the community coaches, ZIMB presented 10 community coaches with group personal accident coverage worth RM200,000 each.

To date, the ERTPR programme has reached more than 600 children from 30 communities in both Peninsular and East Malaysia. The second leg of the inter-community football tournament is set to take place in Sabah at the end of the year with participation from the second batch of children trained under the programme.

For more information on ERTPR programme and its updates as well as ZIMB’s endeavour towards corporate social responsibility, please visit www.zurich.com.my or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ZurichMYS