Stay at Home

We have been closely monitoring the situation since mid February, as our co-founders travelled to Melbourne to attend the Australian International Documentary Conference by invitation from the Motion Picture Association International. We were there to learn from industry experts while promoting our impact film project, “Kurang Manis” (Sugar,Less). The conference was attended by 750+ factual content broadcasters, buyers and media executives from Canada, UK, Europe and Australia and little would we have ever guessed that the trip down under would be even more eventful than we had originally thought! In Malaysia, the Movement Control Order (MCO) came to force from 18 March until the end of the month – a gargantuan task set out by the newly installed government led by PM YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd. Yassin to contain Malaysians in their homes in order to #flattenthecurve. Here’s an excerpt from the Prime Minister’s speech: Saya ingin merayu kepada saudara-saudari. Tolonglah. Stay put where you are. Yang ada di Kuala Lumpur, duduklah di Kuala Lumpur. Yang ada di Johor Bahru duduklah di Johor Bahru. Yang ada di Pulau Pinang, duduklah di Pulau Pinang. Kalau anda merancang untuk pulang ke kampung, batalkanlah dahulu niat itu. Saya minta tolong untuk tempoh dua minggu ini sahaja. Kenapa? Kerana kita hendak putuskan rantaian jangkitan. We want to break the chain of infection. Supaya jumlah orang yang dijangkiti wabak COVID-19 ini dapat dikurangkan… …Jadi, tolonglah. Saya merayu sekali lagi. Duduklah diam-diam di rumah. Stay at home and protect yourself and your family. For more information on COVID-19 in Malaysia, click here to the official PMO website. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Scomo) has announced that the country’s borders is closed in order to curb the rate of infections. Until 9.00pm 20 March, foreign nationals who have recently arrived in Australia must self-isolate in a home or hotel for 14 days after entering Australia. Residents or direct family members will be allowed entry. From 9.00pm 20 March, only citizens will be allowed to enter Australia. Now, the reason for this decision is consistent with the decisions we’ve already made on this issue, and that is we now have around 80 percent of the cases we have in Australia, that either are a result of someone who has contracted the virus overseas or someone who has had a direct contact with someone who has returned from overseas. So the overwhelming proportion of cases in Australia have been imported and the measures we’ve put in place has obviously had an impact on that… Morrison is keeping Australia running, while practising ‘social distancing’ to a 4-square metre distance between people in indoor areas. For information on COVID-19 in Australia, visit the Department of Health’s website at https://www.health.gov.au/. Good things come in threes at Go International Group… From a company stand point, our team is safe and working remotely away from the office is something we are used to so the Stay at Home call is something we can do while Keeping the Business Running. We realise that this has already affected not only the way in which we operate as a business ourselves, but also how it impacts other businesses, and the livelihoods of those working with, and within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Our first initiative is a collaboration between our very own sport and fitness portal AsiaFitnessToday.com and Society for Exercise is Medicine Malaysia and issued this Infographic below as a community service. More virtual classroom activities are in the works, and will be announced soon. Our second initiative was to pass on savings from a negotiation with our principal media partners. Any companies wishing to disseminate issues or crisis communication news releases during the Malaysia Movement Control Order period valid until 14 April 2020 will receive a US$100 discount on their first press release or 15% discount on two releases or more disseminated via the PRNewsGIG/AFTNN platform. Our third initiative is designed to bring free AID to the elderly, frail and underserved populations at no charge to them. We’ve issued a call for #Move8 Warriors to join us as Community Leads in their own neighbourhoods with the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack playing in the background for our first ever Move8 Tea Dance-a-thon on 13 April 2020. Learn more: www.move8.org. So while we launch these three initiatives during the COVID-19 self-isolation and social distancing times, word of the day is “unprecedented” and we’re bracing our families, friends and business as best as we can in the safety of our homes, washing hands with soap for a minimum of 20 seconds, and pray for mankind to emerge the winner in the race to defeat the Coronavirus strain. Take care, be kind, stay at home and let’s continue to keep our lives running … from a distance.