Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow has acknowledged the important role NGOs play in helping the government deliver aid to communities sometimes overlooked by official channels.
He said while the government has introduced various forms of welfare and social protection programmes, some assistance still fails to reach the “hard-to-target” groups.
Chow said NGOs and village community management councils play a “positive role” as intermediaries between the government as well as donors and the eligible aid recipients.
“These organisations help fill that gap by working on the ground together with the local community,” he said after officiating a Deepavali programme organised by Yayasan Kita Anak Malaysia at Auto-City in Juru here today.
The event saw the distribution of festive aid to 1,000 B40 recipients.
Chow also urged the media to play a greater role in reporting on the various forms of assistance channelled by the government to raise public awareness.
The Penang government provides aid under the i-Sejahtera scheme, which gives annual cash assistance to senior citizens, single mothers, persons with disabilities, housewives and infants.
At the federal level, initiatives such as Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR), Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (Sara), the BUDI95 fuel subsidy, and the Progressive Wage Policy aim to ease living costs and help people through targeted aid and wage-linked incentives.
