PETALING JAYA, July 9, 2019 – About 100 children, caregivers, volunteers and well-wishers from Rumah Solehah were treated to a night out at the movies to catch “Spiderman: Far From Home” by employees from Roche Malaysia. It was in conjunction with Roche’s annual corporate social responsibility event – Roche Children’s Walk – an event powered by employees to help improve the lives of underprivileged children. The charity movie screening was among the fund-raising activities employees held to raise funds for children disadvantaged with HIV from Rumah Solehah. This year, over 700 employees from the Roche group in Malaysia comprising the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and shared service centre raised RM50,800 for Rumah Solehah.

Roche Children’s Walk is the company’s signature worldwide employee project. A day powered by employees, this year the theme was We are Roche - “Let’s go!” It is a day for every individual at Roche to engage in social responsibility and make a tangible contribution to improving young lives. For the past 16 years, Roche employees across the globe have organised a one-day event to raise funds for children’s initiatives. Since the event started in 2003, more than 18 million CHF has been collected to support charitable projects in more than 75 communities around the world.

“We are happy that the funds raised for Rumah Solehah will be able to help these children gain a better quality of life. These children need a lot of love, care and attention from the community instead of being shunned for their condition. We will continue our support for the children through a group of Roche volunteers who will visit the home to look into the needs of the children,” said Lance Duan, General Manager, Roche (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., during the cheque presentation ceremony at Taylor’s Lakeside University Campus. He added the combined strengths of Roche pharmaceuticals and diagnostics services - have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare – a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible. “Roche Malaysia has also launched a corporate responsibility programme – Roche Cares - an innovative co-payment model. In this model, Roche partners with private hospitals and NGOs to help financially disadvantaged patients access Roche medicines at a much lower price to help improve their quality of life,” he said.

Rumah Solehah is a half way home for women and children living with HIV/AIDS. Since its inception in 1998, many women and children have “graduated” from the home. The home believes that HIV/AIDS is about fighting to survive and to lead a near normal life. The children and women need a lot of encouragement, motivation and positive thinking. The volunteers and trainers help the children, who are shunned by society, to get back into the community just like any normal kids. The home also looks into the needs of the children’s daily medicines and vitamins.

Explaining further about Roche Children’s Walk, Martin Kikstein, General Manager of Roche Services (Asia Pacific) Sdn Bhd. Said, “The funds raised in Malaysia will be matched by the company for our global initiatives through the Roche Employee Action and Charity Trust (Re&Act), a legally independent charity. Re&Act partners with a variety of organisations, such as UNICEF and ActionAid Malawi, to support children’s education and health programmes in developing countries. Common initiatives supported by Roche Children’s Walk include: education, nutrition, primary healthcare and social development programs.”

“Funds from Roche employees will be used to sustain our daily care for the children’s welfare, education and training in vocational skills. We also have an outreach programme where we visit more than 20 private homes which houses children with HIV/AIDS and this fund will assist them in providing basic needs and ensure they continue with their schooling and educational needs. We also will be using the funds for training our staff and volunteers to handle the psychosocial aspects of the children,” said Matron Fadzilah Abdul Hamid, Head of Rumah Solehah.

Roche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche among the leaders in personalised healthcare – a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.

Roche is one of the world’s largest biotech companies, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also one of the world leaders in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.

Founded in 1896, Roche continues to search for better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and make a sustainable contribution to society. The company also aims to improve patient access to medical innovations by working with all relevant stakeholders. Twenty-nine medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organization Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and cancer medicines. Roche has been recognised as the Group Leader in sustainability within the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Industry eight years in a row by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

The Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is active in over 100 countries and in 2016 employed more than 94,000 people worldwide. In 2016, Roche invested CHF 9.9 billion in R&D and posted sales of CHF 50.6 billion. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.
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Roche has been present in Malaysia since the 1950s, when the sales and distribution of products was managed by a third party distributor. Since then, Roche has established its operations to include Roche (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., the pharmaceutical business, Roche Diagnostics (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. And Roche Shared Service centre. With a total staff strength of over 700, Roche has grown into one of the leading healthcare companies in Malaysia that provides holistic healthcare solutions to healthcare practitioners and patients.
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Roche Children’s Walk is the company’s global signature employee project. Since the first company-wide walk in 2003, more than 220,000 Roche employees have participated, raising more than CHF 18 million. All money collected by employees is matched by Roche and used to support local children’s causes in communities where Roche operates, as well as in developing countries such as Malawi, Ethiopia and the Philippines. Funds are applied to local NGOs or channeled through the Roche Employee Action and Charity Trust (Re&Act), a legally independent charity.
For more information, please visit www.react.roche.com.

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