SHARING THE ROYAL SELANGOR PEWTER STORY WITH IREKA CARES
Kuala Lumpur, 12 March 2016: IREKA CARES children from Rumah Hope and Rumah Kanak-Kanak Angels had an educational outing to the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory in Setapak, Selangor where they learnt at first-hand about how one of Malaysia’s oldest industries produces pewter goods. The group of 30 children and Ireka volunteers were taken on a tour by an informative guide, Kishen, who explained the workings of the active foundry from its beginnings in 1885 to the present day. It was interesting to learn about the process of making pewter (combination of copper and tin) products, mostly handcrafted by the 400 staff working on the factory floor. The beautifully designed finished products are sold in their shops throughout Malaysia and internationally in countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, UK and Hong Kong.
The children got to try their hand at pewter design at the “School of Hard Knocks” and as the name suggests, there was a lot of banging and knocking done, creating one massive deafening sound which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Each child engraved their name onto the pewter bowl which they got to take home as a lasting memento. To test their listening skills, there was even a quiz to answer at the end which included a question about the World’s largest pewter tankard, made in 1985 to commemorate Royal Selangor’s centenary and recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Huge thanks to all the staff at Royal Selangor Pewter for the warm welcome and fun day out.
After all that learning and knocking, it was time for lunch at a nearby KFC which everyone, old and young, enjoyed. The volunteers are certainly counting the days to their next outing with the children in May!
IREKA CARES is Ireka Corporation Berhad’s flagship CSR programme that has been in existence since 2010. It aims to build on Ireka’s expertise in Infrastructure, Real Estate and Technologies intending:
- To inspire all by helping to develop an ideal living and learning environment for underprivileged children.
- To maintain and sustain its CSR efforts through active and purposeful participation from volunteers enlisted from all staff levels across the organization.