Singapore, 18 June 2004 – The only local air conditioner distributor in Singapore is organizing a fundraising drive to raise funds to operate the first Computer Training Centre specially dedicated to people with physical disabilities.

Winfinity (S’pore) Pte Ltd, the sole distributor of Fujitsu air conditioners aims to raise enough money to fund the operating cost of The Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) Computer Training Centre for the next two years.

Funds will be raised through the sale of Fujitsu air conditioners in the “Fill The Air With Love” Charity Drive starting from 18 June. During the three-month charity drive, Winfinity will donate up to $200 in the name of the customer to SPD for every Fujitsu air conditioner bought from its dealers.

The “Fill The Air With Love” Charity Drive was launched on 18 June at 11am at the SPD Roof Terrace where a memorandum of understanding was signed between Winfinity and SPD. In the MOU, Winfinity pledged to raise $300,000 for the SPD Computer Training Centre.

Ms Sindy Ng, Chief Financial Officer of Winfinity said: “Winfinity is the only local air conditioner distributor in Singapore. As a local company, we believe that it is our responsibility to return to the community that has supported us”. As a step further, Winfinity also granted its staff time off to perform their community service at SPD. Thirteen Winfinity staff spent half a day with SPD beneficiaries on 3 June to learn more of the programmes and services. Added Sindy Ng: “This is the start of more activities to come which may later include a family day where Fujitsu air conditioner dealers will join Winfinity staff and SPD clients for a day of fun and interaction. We hope to achieve a tripartite long-term partnership with our dealers and a charity in the community where we operate in”.

Dr Ow Chee Chung, Executive Director, SPD said: “The advent of IT is inevitable and unavoidable and will permeate many aspects of our life. People with physical disabilities are not spared and they must learn to embrace it. To be able to use the Internet can help to open a new door of communication and to be fully IT versatile and savvy will only enhance employability of people with physical disabilities. SPD is therefore very grateful that Winfinity has come forward to support its Computer Training Centre”.

The SPD Computer Centre is the only fully physically accessible computer lab in Singapore. The Centre is complemented by the Assistive Technology Centre to provide the necessary assistive devices to help people with physical disabilities to access the computer. With the funding available, SPD will put in place a two-year course curriculum that incorporates individual course paths for people with physical disabilities to maximize the individual learning. The Computer Centre will be able to cater up to 600 training places for the two years.

One SPD client who will benefit from the training is Roslee bin Karim. Roslee, a SPD web designer, is looking forward to doing a course in Adobe InDesign that will enable him to improve his web design skills. On completing this course, Roslee and his fellow SPD web designers will be able to offer more competitive web design services to companies and this will greatly increase their job opportunities.

Said Roslee: “In the fast paced IT world, it is very important to always update our skills or we will become irrelevant. It is thus good to know that we will be able to upgrade our skills continually with Winfinity’s support”.

About 50 Fujitsu air conditioner dealers were also present to witness the MOU signing ceremony this morning. They later went on a tour to familiarize themselves with the programmes and services as well as a long stop at the Computer Training Centre where a macromedia flash class was held for 10 students with physical disabilities.