Our Background Story
How it all started
The idea of setting up an Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia (ADFM) was first mooted in 1996 by a member of the Rotary Club of Shah Alam (RCSA), Selangor, whose mother was an Alzheimer’s patient.
The Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation was registered in August 1997 and obtained tax-exemption status in September, 1999.
As founder of the Foundation, RCSA had pledged to raise RM500,000 for Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia (ADFM). The various fund-raising projects organised for this purpose included an Operafest Charity Performance (“Flower Drum Song”) in 1998, as well as two Treasure Hunts in 1998 and 1999. The Lee Foundation donated RM200,000 to ADFM, much of this amount being specified for the setting up of the country’s first Alzheimer’s Daycare Centre.
The continued commitment towards ADFM by a small club with less than 40 members has been highly commended by Rotary International. In recognition of RCSA’s singular effort in this endeavour, RCSA was awarded Rotary International’s Significant Achievement Award in 1998.
In 1998, ADFM became a provisional member of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the umbrella organisation of national Alzheimer’s associations around the world. ADFM’s logo reflects this relationship.
The Foundation’s Secretariat was set up in February 2000. With this, ADFM launched the new millennium with new resolve and an ambitious agenda to further the Alzheimer’s cause in Malaysia.