Feeding the Poor at Kuala Selangor (Part 2)

We traveled fast to ensure that we can finish early. As Ainie & Joseph are well-versed with the location, we just have to keep up with them due to time constraint.

Giving the kids biscuits and bread..

It floods when it rains...

The family coming out to receive the feeding pack

Gave the kid a story book...its always new to them even its old to us.

Guess this is one of the most greenery scene I ever seen! Too long in the concrete jungle!

That looks familiar.....oh yeah, we are MALAYSIANS!! Tolong BERSIH-kan!

Single mother who is working, only the kids at home.

At the above house, a curious neighbour asked me what are we doing and I told her that we are feeding the poor. The remark I got was "do they look like they need help?". I was bit upset with the statement as I feel that if you are not willing to help, why not just keep quiet. No doubt we do not know what is the background of the family, but if someone in the family is working, I know at least they are doing something for themselves. The kids are listed as poor in the school, hence they are also part of the feeding list. I know there are people who would ask how can we really know if they need help, and I can only say, we cant as we are doing this on humanitarian grounds and if they took all the trouble to deceive us, there is nothing much we can do.

The kids were happy to see us distributing the biscuits

As we visit more houses, some of the conditions are getting worse.

I doubt if there is any electricity & water pipe....

2 families in a sharing the same house

Departing to another house in the estate area....

Located in a fenced environment, consist of 2 houses and lots of land space

Two families in this long house.

Bare minimum things in the house.

After this, we left for another home along the highway. The recipients are also estate workers.

View in an estate location... must be very quiet and dark at night...

Family of seven girls and two boys...

The Road to Ijok

Thanks guys for helping out! :)

Feeding an old friend with bread...

A small hut in the factory. Family of 5 kids

They wasnt around the last time as wife delivered a new born. Gave them a packet of baby milk powder

 

You dont get to see this everyday.... ;)

Giving breads to the tenants

A basic empty house

Pit stop at petrol station. Reachable by LATAR highway

As traffic was heavy at certain stretch of the road, we got lost following the lead car. Hence, we waited at petrol station for Ainie & Joseph and take a breather. Later was told that was the last few to be delivered and the team break up for lunch. Some of the homes that we visited had no one around, hence Pastor Joseph will deliver it.

Special thanks to Hajjah Ainie for having us to join in this month's delivery, the Sunway student who have help us and 1M1C members' contribution for making this month's activity a successful one!

Our Expenses :-
(note: Final donors has not been finalised yet as we still receive donations, hence I will just post up the July expenses first)

[Updated 6/8/2011] - Final account details..

Receipts for all Kuala Selangor purchases:-

Kuala Selangor Feeding...another perspective

The following entry was written by a fellow volunteer whom provided another perspective.

Saturday 16 July 2011 is a memorable day for me and my family,  the day we were introduced to another side of world, the poverty world of the hardcore poor in society, one often read about but rarely ventured into. My interest in this area first sparked when I came upon the noble works done by Project MADE, an NGO founded and lead by a dynamic lady Hajjah Ainie Sahnam. Even then, I already find her enthusiasm and selfless commitment truly awe-inspiring and hope that someday I can have the chance to personally meet her. God must have heard my wish and sent an angel in the form of 1Month 1Charity’s organiser, Chew, to make my wish possible. 

When we came to know that 1Month 1Charity will team up with Project MADE for their Feeding Program in Kuala Selangor, I immediately knew I will not forgo this chance to learn and experience this wing of charity from the experienced people. However, dear Hubby was a bit apprehensive at first, due to his concern on my health. After some assurance and also due to his own compassionate nature, I managed to secure his support on attending this event.

As we are residing quite a distance away from Kuala Selangor, we bundled up our kids and our portion of the feeding packs consisting of rice, flour, meehoon, salt, sugar, sardine and soap bar in the car and started our journey before sunrise, hoping to reach there before the designated time. The journey was blissfully smooth until we encountered heavy lorries and for awhile were quite worried if we were able to make it on time.

The group of us, comprising of Hajjah Ainie and the soon-to-be Pastor Joseph from Project MADE’s team, 1Month 1Charity’s organiser Chew, regular members Jacinta and Tony, my husband Ong, my 2 kids, myself and joining us for the first time are four students from Sunway College, all gathered at a Mamak Restaurant opposite IPD Kuala Selangor and had an informal get-to-know each other session over breakfast before organising ourselves into a convoy of 4 cars. Today’s Feeding Program’s distribution list has 40 families spread out over Kuala Selangor, Tanjung Karang, Batang Berjuntai and Ijok, which we target to finish distribution by 2pm.   

It may not look like a house, but it is a home for them

We started out at 9am with our first distribution in Tanjong Karang area. It was both a saddening and enriching experience to see the recipients faces and being briefed on their condition by Project MADE team as we go round carrying out our distribution tasks. On our part, seeing these people’s pitiful living condition enforces in ourselves our personal believe all this while, which is to live our life in a simple manner so that we can use our blessings to help others. True to the saying “Many hands make light work”, by 10am we already covered up to 6 homes and proceeded  to our next destination  Kg Koboi, where we distributed our feeding packs to another 7 families before proceeding to Kg Sg Yu and Teluk Piah where another 5 homes are located. Most of these houses have one thing in common, their condition is run-down and the inside is usually quite bare of furniture, with just a decent couch or chairs and racks for storing things. 

The Road to Ijok

By 11.30am, we were on our way to Ijok area where our distribution were to some homes located within the plantation estate. Same atmosphere greeted us wherever we went, children joyfully running out to receive bread and biscuits and adults thanking us profusely for our contribution, showing their appreciation to our presence. Along the way, we notice that Hajjah Ainie and Joseph never failed to enquire these families on the welfare and needs, and their genuine interest clearly endears them to the hearts of these people. My respect and admiration for these two with big hearts has grown much by the end of this trip. 

Our last leg of the journey brought us to Kg Api-Api, which we found out was the place where Joseph grew up in. The last two families’ living condition is truly pitiful. One home we went to belongs to an old lady whose husband had passed away and left her with a daughter and a son. The daughter has married and moved away but leave her children there to be cared by the old lady while she works. The son who is living with her barely earns enough to support himself and spents it all on alcohol, relying on his old mother to provide him his meals. The old lady was crying as she relates her story to us.

By the time we completed our distribution, it was close to 3pm. We said our goodbyes to Hajjah Ainie and Joseph, agreeing to keep in touch with sincere hope that we may meet again in this noble path.  Our student friends from Sunway also made their departure, leaving the rest of us contemplating where to fill our stomach. Following Chew’s lead, we arrived at a riverside seafood restaurant where he graciously “feed” us with a sumptuous late lunch as reward for our work done in feeding the poor.

We parted ways after that and while Chew, Jacinta and Tony headed for home, husband and myself lingered on a little while longer, driving around, taking in the scenery, talking over the day’s event. We plan to come back again sometime soon…

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! :)