PETALING JAYA, March 25 — A movement, #GajiSehariChallenge, has been launched to urge Malaysians to donate a day’s salary to help the needy during the movement control order (MCO).

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) advocacy manager Yu Ren Chung, who is behind the initiative, posted the challenge on both his Twitter and Facebook accounts, encouraging Malaysians to donate to any organisation from the #kitajagakita website.

This includes refugee communities, food banks, underserved communities and even money to buy food for animals in Zoo Negara.

He also shared that the inception of this challenge was so that everyone can help the underserved communities by giving an amount proportional to their income.

"The challenge is for everyone who can publicly commit by donating a day’s salary to any verified group fighting Covid-19, and to ask three friends to do the same too.

"Our frontliners are putting their lives on the line, while the poor and marginalised are struggling as most have lost their income amid the Covid-19 shutdown.

"With the MCO recently being extended, things might be harder for these communities too.”

He said that while he was lucky enough to have his steady income and savings, the least he could do besides staying at home was to support the frontliners and those that have been struggling.

Yu also revealed a series of steps to whoever is interested in joining the challenge.

Step 1: Choose any organisation verified by #kitajagakita website.

Step 2: Commit publicly to donate to that chosen group, and ask 3 friends to do the same. 

(Example: https://twitter.com/renchung/status/1242279865409081344)

Step 3: Donate

Prominent Malaysian figures who have taken up the challenge include renowned lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir and South-east Asian commentator Karim Raslan.