Welcome again to Yayasan Pillar Shared Giving or #KongsiBersedekah program.
This is our 5th series where we cover more city poor families and houses in Semariang area, specifically this time in kpg sg midin.
This time we met and chatted with a 12 years old boy named Fikri, son to Romie and a brother to Wardina aged 15.
As the mother was out working when we visited their house, we caught up with their 12 year old son.
We handed out food package under our Shared Giving program and interestingly found out from the brother that his sister Wardina has not been going to classes regularly for a year.
Reason given was she had no means of getting to school.
One very disturbing fact is the condition this family and many other families here found themselves in.
Everyway you turn outside their houses, under their houses, by the roadside, and open spaces are rubbish dump.
Children play and eat among heaps of rubbish.
Their houses are like stinking pits with little room to breathe or move.
We also included in our list of Shared Giving another family because of historical record they maintained, where 4 out of 6 school aged children left school prematurely.
Puan Hasnah's 2 sons and 2 daughters left school before they finished.
When asked why?
The mother simply answered "we gave our children choice to continue schooling or quit and find a job."
"We advised our children to continue study but if they refuse, we would not force them."
This family is considered reasonably ok economically as the father has steady job and earning above RM1000 per month.
They do not fall under the category of city poor in Yayasan Pillar's list.
Another family is a single mother with 2 children.
Puan Norlidah bt Abdullah has a medical case of liver malfunction, therefore cannot work and desperately need financial help.
She is not getting any kind of aid from government agencies as she just didn't know how to follow up again on her application for assistance.
She keeps no record of her application.
Yayasan Pillar handed out Food Baskets to all the families and offer to assist them follow up with government agencies for assistance where they are eligible or where they have been overlooked.
Briefly the problems shackling these families are poverty, poor health, filthy surrounding, broken down houses and the sheer lack of will by parents to ensure children finished their school.
I shudder to think what future these children will have?
Why are these deplorable conditions of city poor still allowed to go on for years?
Whose responsibility?
Parents? Local YB? Or our system?
One of the ways Yayasan Pillar helps the city poor is through its #KongsiBersedekaH program. The objective of #KongsiBersedekaH is to get community to engage in sharing the arduous burden faced by city poor families on a daily basis. If you wish to help lighten their burden, please don't hesitate to donate to lessen the daily PAIN faced by city poor. ?
The Pillar Foundation (Maybank Islamic)
Account Number: 561190054374
Reference: Foodbank For City Poor
