PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution
President of MERCY Malaysia elected as Chair of the International Council of
Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
Kuala Lumpur, March 12th, 2015 - MERCY Malaysia’s President - Dato’ Dr Ahmad Faizal
Mohd Perdaus holds the position as the new Chair of the International Council of Voluntary
Agencies (ICVA) elected at the 16th General Assembly held in Centre International de
Conférences Genève (CICG) on 9th March 2015. This assembly convenes every three years
where the Chair and Board are elected.
The prestigious position brings forth a double recognition not only to MERCY Malaysia, but
also to Malaysia as a country. It is, in fact, the first time that the Chair position is held by a
representative of a small NGO in the Global South of the developing world and is a nonwestern country since ICVA was founded in 1962, which makes it the world’s oldest NGO
consortia. Consequently, this also means that MERCY Malaysia will be a permanent member
of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the highest policy-making and direction
setting body in the international humanitarian world.
“I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and wish to extend my sincere thanks for the
hard work and contribution that has been done over the years in MERCY Malaysia. It is
indeed a great step forward for our country and MERCY Malaysia. I am honoured yet greatly
humbled to take on the Chair position and will endeavour to effectively execute my role and
support the priority objectives of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies to the best
of my abilities”, said Dato’ Dr Faizal.
Other ASEAN representatives elected to the board includes Mr Anoop Sukumaran from Asia
Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) in Thailand and Mr Vladimir Hernandez from
Community and Family Services International (CFSI) in Philippines.
The ICVA 2015 General Assembly represents an important opportunity for ICVA members to
reflect on the previous year, and convene in the lead up to the 2016 World Humanitarian
Summit (WHS). The conference discussed the value and implementation of the Principles of
Partnership that was introduced by the Global Humanitarian Platform (GHP) in 2007. The
Principles of Partnership (Equality, Transparency, Results-Oriented Approach, Responsibility
and Complementarity) is a framework of guiding principles for humanitarian agencies to
factor into their operations.
Ends.
For more information, please contact:
Jillian Louis, Communications Officer, MERCY Malaysia
E: [email protected] T:+603-21422007 (Ext:244) F:+603-2142 1992 M:+6012 313 1229
Megawati Md. Rashidi, General Manager, Communications & Fundraising
E: [email protected] T: T: 6-03-2142 2007 F: 6-03-2142 1992 M: 6-019-314 0062
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About MERCY Malaysia
MERCY Malaysia is a non-profit organisation focusing on providing medical relief, sustainable health-related
development and risk reduction activities for vulnerable communities in both crisis and non-crisis situations.
MERCY Malaysia recognises the value of working with partners and volunteers as well as providing
opportunities for individuals to serve with professionalism. We uphold the Code of Conduct for the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief and hold ourselves
accountable to our donors and beneficiaries. As a non-profit organisation, MERCY Malaysia relies solely on
funding and donations from organisations and generous individuals to continue our services to provide
humanitarian assistance to our beneficiaries. For more information, please visit www.mercy.org.my
How is MERCY Malaysia funded?
To ensure independence and impartiality, MERCY Malaysia relies on donations from the general public for
financial support. A portion of our income is obtained from institutional donors, individual government grants
and other international organizations, which are given on project basis. MERCY Malaysia spends 80% if its
income in carrying out its relief operations and support.
Important Note to Media: Usage of Wordmark MERCY Malaysia
In order to avoid confusion with other organisation(s) that uses “Mercy” as the organisation’s name or part of
the organisation’s name, please take note that in addressing the name of our organisation, the wordmark for
MERCY Malaysia is with capitalised “MERCY”, followed by the word “Malaysia”. When describing the
organisation, the term “MERCY Malaysia” must always be used in full, and should not be partially referred to
as “MERCY”, or “Mercy”. Thank you for your cooperation.