Feeding the Poor at Kuala Selangor (Part 1)

The planning for this feeding started about 2 months ago. In June 2010, a friend forwarded me a link, friendsofkapar.com. I visited the site and find that it would be a beneficial way for 1M1C to do our future visits compare to our normal monthly visits, as we are concentrating on a single home, while in this way we can be more diversified in multiple homes.

With work and personal live keeping the team busy, the next encounter was 2 months back when I visited the site again. But this time, the URL is not valid anymore. Did some Goggling and somehow, manage to find Project MADE in blogspot and Facebook. Thus, I made contact with the Project Co-ordinator and have our first meeting and see how we can work together, being the fact that we are still new and inexperience. We decided that 1M1C will participate in July's feeding instead of June as there was already a sponsor for it.

And I guess, as the saying goes... the rest is history! :) For this visit, we had more than 10 volunteers that wanted to join, but due to transportation logistic, we were not able to cater for all. Pre-planning work started with distributing the purchases of 40 homes to 3 volunteers.  The list of items was provided and we purchased the following :-

• Rice (5kg)
• 1 packet salt
• 1 packet of sugar
• 1 packet of meehoon
• 1 can of sardine
• Dhall (purchased large sack and repack)
• 3x bath soap

Biscuits for the kids, and 10 pack of milk powders. The rest is standard issued feeding pack.

 
As we only purchased standard groceries, we thought giving extra items, which is soap (yes, its a luxury for them even though its only RM1.90!). And as usual, our wishes were mysteriously answered with 120 bars of soap donated by a Good Samaritan. (I need a new car... >.<  )

120 bars of soap and I begin to smell like a piece of soap too!

I started my journey early, and with no traffic expected, I had a smooth drive. Took me about 45 minutes to reach Kuala Selangor and weather was bit gloomy. I was worried if it would rain today but luckily it didnt.

Oh its my turn to cross the road.. traffic light have to take number only can cross one.. my number is 47! Just kidding la!

20 pax, with another 20 in another car.

We meet up at IPD Kuala Selangor at 0800 and glad that no one got lost. We had a quick breakfast and introduction before the long day ahead. We also have 4 students from Sunway College joining us. As we have 40 homes to go distribute, we reorganized the feeding pack into the cars and left one car at the restaurant to avoid a large contingent.

The homes' selection criteria are based on those categorized as poor from the school. Hence, entering a poor residential area, it is heart breaking to see that neighbours came out, expecting that we give them a feeding pack and yet they are not in our list. ;( Again, we cant possibly help the whole neighbourhood. The objectives of this feeding are to ensure that the homes do not need to worry about the food for the few days so that they can go look for jobs. It is also not to create a welfare state where they depend on donation to survive.

The first home we visited

Greeted by the old lady and the kids

Sunway students helping us with the stuffs! Thanks guys!

The original house was in bad condition, and later was rebuilt by 1MDB.

Standard feeding pack for the homes

We depart for another house nearby and provide the kids with bread and biscuits. I can see their happiness getting it, as I believe they dont get this often. For a small item that we gave, the smiles on their faces are priceless.

The house is also dilapidated and supposedly to be renovated by 1MDB.

The daughter, 19yrs old, expecting a baby in Nov. Husband is working in the oil palm estate.

We depart to Pastor Joseph's home as there were a lot of used clothes that we will put in his home.

Ainie's 4WD with all the clothes. Cant imagine she filled up her car with food and clothes during her normal round!

Used clothes, toys.. and A LOTS of it !!

Donated to a home few doors away from Pastor's home. The housing area is bit run down with no maintenance. But the worst is yet to come...

Four homes done... thirty six more to go! Will post this before this entry get too long. Second part coming soon! :)