Untukmu Sinaran Hati, 'Ray Of Hope'

On 7th January 2011, Nazeera, a course mate of mine, and I went to catch a live Suria telecast of a fund-raising event called "Untukmu Sinaran Hati, Ray Of Hope" that was televised by MediaCorp. The show was aired live from 8.30pm to 10.30pm on that Friday night, and there was a repeat on the following Sunday night. 

It was a malay event hoosted by Khairuddin Saharom and Hazlina Halim, MediaCorp artistes, and had performances by many of the local artistes like Sheikh Haikal, the band Sleeq, M. Nasir and many more. The purpose of the event was actually to raise funds for the people who are fighting for their lives but have very little to provide for themselves and the elderly who are in need of help. As the partners of the event was TAA Trust Fund 2011, it was clear that the purpose of the show was to raise money for the less fortunate.

The target audience for this event was mostly Malay speaking people, although I did see a handful of Chinese and Indian people in the crowd. Although the whole event was mostly based on the Malay dialect (with bits of the English language being spoken here and there) it was nice to see that people from other races came along, maybe to support their friends on stage or who are fans of the celebrities who performed.

I believe that another group of people who were targeted for the events are the fanatics. Those "fangirls" of the Suria artistes, for example Sleeq, Khairul Anwar and more, they were very much cheering their names throughout the whole event, showing their support. I believe that Suria had invited those artistes to perform to attract more viewers for the event.

'Untukmu Sinaran Hati' was publicized on the television, on Suria as well as Channel 5, also on the malay radio station Ria. It was publicized in the malay newspaper as well, and in these ways, the event was being widely publicized to reach people through different mediums.

To me, the event had been quite a success, as at the end of the night, they had managed to receive donations almost up to $400, 000 in a time span of 2 hours. 

I noticed that they had 15 acts  in total, from songs, skits and monologues to martial arts showcase by the Singapore Capoeira group and Singapore Sports Silat team. In between all the acts, they also had to stop for commercial breaks, where they always put up their commercial of celebrities suggesting that the viewers should make a donation to help the less fortunate. 

During the commercial in the hall itself, the entertainer, or should I say the 'middle-man' (A.B Sheikh) comes on stage and interacts with the audience, making sure that we are still being kept lively in our seats and enjoying ourselves.

The event ended with cheque presentations by a handful of companies that made large sums of donations to the event, as well as a performance by all of the performers on that night.

If I were the manager, I would've felt that the advertisements they had shown during the commercials to encourage the viewers to donate to be very intriguing and heartwarming. Although, I disliked the fact that the performers couldn't remember the number of the hotlines, and they kept stammering the numbers of live television, which shows that they are not professional. Other than that, I think that the whole event was a success and that they have done a great job for a good cause.