JOHOR, MALAYSIA— Over 40,000 residents were displaced from their homes, and five people died when floods hit the state of Johor over the week.
As an act to call for donations to support the victims, Singaporean getai (歌台, live stage performances) singer and actor Wang Lei hosted a live stream on Monday (6 Mar).
In just 50 minutes, the live stream raised RM600,000 (S$180,000) for the flood victims in Malaysia — double the initial fundraising goal of RM300,000.
In a Facebook post the following day, the 61-year-old wrote: “We did it! We raised RM600,000 (S$180,000) for the Malaysian flood victims in just 50 minutes!”
He expressed his gratitude to netizens “from all over” who contributed to the fundraiser.
“Originally, we set a target to raise RM300,000 for the flood victims in Malaysia. But, in just 50 minutes of live broadcast, we successfully collected RM600,000, far exceeding the original goal of RM300,000.”
Wang who is commonly known as “fish-selling brother”, also explained how the money would be distributed to prevent a repeat of 2021 when he was questioned about his donation recipients.
“Two years ago, I raised RM750,000 for the Malaysian flood victims. Unfortunately, I was attacked by some trolls who accused me of not listing out how the RM750,000 was used. ”
This is despite having listed each donation and even shot videos to prove that the money was spent appropriately.
And because of this, Wang wrote that while he initially did not wish to intervene in the affairs, since he is a Singaporean and a livestreamer, and wanted to avoid being attacked online, many netizens asked him to run another fundraiser. However, in light of how the natural disaster caused many to be displaced from their homes, he decided to go ahead with it.
With the experience that he had previously, Wang wrote, “This time, I won’t use the donations to buy things on my own, but instead, I’ll hand them over to the Malaysian volunteer team to handle. ”
He also thanked the retired professional badminton player Dato Lee Chong Wei’s support in the effort to help the victims.
In another post yesterday (8 Mar), Wang Lei updated that the fundraiser had successfully raised RM750,000 for the flood victims.
He thanked everyone generously donated and announced that the fundraising would continue till midnight.
According to Oriental Daily News, Andrew Cheah(谢华光), chairman of “Sunflower Charity Association”, expressed his gratitude to Wang Lei for trusting their charity organization.
He confirmed that they would purchase relief goods according to Wang’s instructions and distribute them to the flood victims.
The charity NGO will distribute relief items worth 800 ringgit to each household affected by the flood, including kitchenware, chairs and furniture, cleaning supplies, electrical appliances, and other items.
The first batch of 100 sets of relief items will be personally delivered to flood victims in Johor this Friday (10 March).
