January 4, 2012

Appco Malaysia recently collaborated with IKEA Malaysia to roll out UNICEF’s “The State of the World’s Children 2011” campaign alongside the “YES! I want to be a champion for children” petition campaign.

IKEA Malaysia sponsored floor space at their venue to allow for the fundraising and awareness campaign currently rolled out by Appco Malaysia for the last quarter of 2011.

The latest campaign from UNICEF focuses on adolescents who are disadvantaged and marginalized, and works to protect their rights especially in conflict, post-conflict and emergency situations.

“Adolescence is a challenging and vulnerable phase of life between 10 to 19 years of age when children have to deal with profound physical, emotional, sexual and social changes,” says Hans Olsen, UNICEF Representative, Malaysia.

UNICEF’s ultimate goal is to nurture healthy, literate, economically independent and engaged adults. UNICEF will capitalize on its existing partnerships with government bodies, private organizations and cultivate new coalitions to help support young people.

“With our partners, we are ready to make that investment and seize the opportunity,” says Mr Olsen.

The campaign has proved to be a huge success with more than 600 new donors signed up and significant funds raised for UNICEF with the help of IKEA Malaysia. More than 7000 “Champion for Children” signatures were also received.

Part of the campaign also involved a survey for adolescents to fill out which allows UNICEF to collect data, which will later be used by not only themselves but the affiliated bodies within the Malaysian government for development purposes.

Due to the huge success of the campaign, IKEA Malaysia is set to feature the campaign in the next issue of the ONE Ikea Magazine, a bi-monthly publication by IKEA that is distributed to their customer base throughout Malaysia.