St Barnabas Home and Community Center (2nd visit)

Right after Warga Emas, we goto St Barnabas Home. We need to carry the groceries to 3rd floor which is the floor for the kids. There are 3 floors, with 2 floors for the males and 1 floor for the females. The home is funded by the Anglican church.

We talked to the care taker about how the kids end up here. Most of them are from single parent. Some of the parent only visit their child once a year. The kids are roughly 7 to 16 years old. Only two of the single parent contribute back to the home. When asked how the kids feel when they see their parent once a year, they say its normal and do not feel sad. Perhaps the young children understand the predicament they are in. Its sad to see such kids at this age having this type of burden and not living in the parents' love and care.

From our previous visit, we noticed that the kids here are well discipline. When we arrived at about 3pm, it was a hot afternoon and most of them were sleeping. Some of them were in the living hall with us as they cant sleep.


This time around, we have more people to join us with kids too. We are glad to see the participation of more people and hopefully more to join us in our next trip! Thanks for the toys from the Yeo family!

The main hall






Duty Roster


Toilets






The Kitchen



The store room




Our deliveries



Account


Total: RM1250
Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang Selangor: RM 502.35
Persatuan Warga Emas: RM 450
St Barnabas Home and Community Center: RM 300.20

Persatuan Warga Emas (3rd visit)

For this trip, we revisited back the old folks home (Warga Emas - 3rd visit) and also St Barnabas Home (2nd visit). As usual, we called up to see what they need most, so that we wont buy too many of 'unnecessary' stuffs. Based on our experience, a lot of homes received a lot of rice. Hence, if you decide to donate a lot of rice, do called up and ask first so that they have a balance of the list of things that they want.

As usual, we meet up at Tesco Klang to purchase our groceries. As we have more people joining us this round, we split to 3 teams, so it was much organised and easier this round. However, for a Sunday, the queue was super long. So, if you decide to do what we do, make sure you have lots of time to avoid rushing for time. And remember, Saturday no plastic bags !

Our presence to Warga Emas was expected and the caretaker has finally get to know to know us based on previous visits. We had long conversation this time, and our conversation lead to family members of the tenants. I guess it is very normal for the caretaker to receive comments from the family members that they 'do not know them' or promised to call them later, but never did. We have few stories like abandoned parents in the home, people with no memory of themselves.

I guess we, 'normal people' like us never hear this 'type' stories in our daily life. But to listen the life story about these people, it makes you wonder, how could this happen, where is the feeling of love in this? Most of the tenants here are in their fifties and makes me wonder 30 years ago, when the tenants were working hard for their kids, did they ever realized that they will end up in the home like this? We are truly saddened to hear to this, but again, as their life story is told to us, we feel we can only passed on the story and raised the awareness to everyone to remind you when you were young and weak, there were 2 persons in your life that nurture you, guide you, protect you so that you can have what you have today. And for whatever reason, they do not deserve to be here.

Perhaps some of the readers may think it is karma, but we are not here to judge them. Our team's mission is to provide basic necessities in their daily life, and hope our contribution are able to give them a better days. It is not hard for you to extend a hand to a charity. Just make a call and ask them what they want. One good thing we discovered was, there are other public donations beside us that help places like this. So, do you bit and find a charity you can help.

The few stories from the caretaker this time are....

a) The tenant was previously a taxi driver. He met an accident and had both of his legs amputated. After staying alone so long in the home, one day he met his 'brother' in a dinner function, and the uncle was so happy to talked to him as he has not seen him for a long time. Yet, when asked, the brother denied knowing him. :(




b) This tenant was a teacher. He had many children but they never visit him. He had stroke and already giving up his living.

We also noticed that some of the tenants that we saw the last time we were here, was not there anymore, and was told that they have passed on. With limited budget to run the house, having a funeral is not cheap either. First they will try to contact the family member. But if there is no response from the family, they will contact MCA or MIC to help for the funeral. For you info, basic funeral does not comes cheap either...even by cremation, it will cost at least a few thousand dollars. Special thanks for those who has provide a basic decent funeral for the deceased.





Based on our conversation with the caretaker, they are looking into a new home as the current one is being rented. The new place is located at Taman Sentosa and they need a lot of single bed like the one below but they have enough mattress for now.




Picture of the rest of the home :-

Entrance of the house



Outside the house :-

Inside the main hall


Store room with the additional mattress



The Kitchen




Basic kitchen that does its job



Toilet and bath area





The Tenants


Some of the tenants are living in a extended part of the house


Main entrance where the old folks sit and think how their glory days have gone... and how did they end up here..? :(







The caretaker and family




Our deliveries:





Account


Total: RM1250
Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang Selangor: RM 502.35
Persatuan Warga Emas: RM 450 (total is 462.90 but Yeo's family help to absorb RM 13)
Balance: RM 297.65

Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang Selangor

For this month, we decided to go to Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang Selangor which is located in Port Klang. The house is just located near the Port Klang Fire Dept (if you are using Google Map, it was tagged wrongly...and you wont find the Fire Dept in the map either). So, did a pre-visit before the real visit to avoid getting lost.. ;)

As usual, we called up and ask for the list of groceries that they need and we gathered in Tesco to purchased it. For this round, we have 3 new members who joined us in our visit. Thank you for your presence.



Main Entrance







The center is a non-profit org run by Mr Morgun. The total number of tenants here are 80 kids, aged from 5 years old to 26 years old. The tenants here suffer from down syndrome, mental/mild retardation, cerebral palsy, slow learning ability etc. Once they reach 26 years old, they will be transferred to old folks home.40 of the kids go to school, transported by the home's van.

Only 4 kids goes home at night, and some parents paid monthly expenses. However, majority of the tenants family does not give any contribution due to family background such as single mother. The home needs about RM32k for monthly expenses, hence donation from public is very important to keep the home running.







Tenants list


Majority of the children here have been left here by the parents and never come back. There is one case where the baby sitter put the kid here, because the parents didnt come back for him. And there is no legal paperwork for the kid's existence. This kid is super hyper active, and I believe we have a tough time catching up with him running up and down ;) He is coming to 5 years old and was not shy playing with us.


The kid's name is Ah Meng, and he is also another hyperactive kid. While we were there, he managed to get us to play with his pictorial card. He was a warrior. Since baby he have heart complication and successfully cured after an operation. Now at age 4, he was diagnosed with bone cancer. Yet he never show us the pains and play happily



Note : Classroom in a container ...





The kitchen


The washing machine and freezer


Mini play ground


As we are about to leave, the rest of the tenants just came back from a presentation ceremony. We were told that YTL are donating a piece of land for them. Bravo! ;)






Account Details


Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang Selangor: RM 502.35
Balance : RM 747.65

Our Deliveries



Note : Additional 4 more packs diapers were in the house, hence they are not in the 'family photo' above.

If you want to donate to this home, kindly contact Mr Morgun (012-391 5893).

Again, thank you to our donors again for making this visit a success. We would really like you all to join us for our future trips and share the moment with us. (Real reason is we need strong hands to help us shopping!). And special thanks for our 3 new found friends who join us today. Your presence are greatly appreciated.