Food Donations to poor families (updated)

The office committee decided to run a food donation campaign - targeting to donate food to the poor. Izan was asked to coordinate the campaign and together with other "volunteers", they decided to make donations to 6 poor families. The final result was food donations to 3 Malay families, 2 Chinese families and 1 Indian family. All donations were from employees. God bless each and every one of you for your kind hearts and donations!!

Collection of the food was undertaken over one month. Except for that incident when some "heartless and inconsiderate" individual "donated" expired foodstuff, the collection went well. We managed to get many economy sized packs of bee hoon (rice vermicelli), bags of rice, economy sized bottles of ketchup, cartons of condensed milk, instant noodles, sardines, cereals, tins of biscuit, packets of milk, garlic, eggs and a whole lot more.

The week that we decided to make the donations, we had volunteers sort out and separate the food equitably for 6 families. As I had a Toyota Unser, by default, I was one of the food transporters. Syida had a Naza Ria and she took on the load for 3 other families.

Proposals for the poor families came from many quarters. For the Chinese families, Elaine proposed 2 of the families with "special children". Until you come face to face with these families, I think many people do not realize how tough it is to manage families with such children and to make ends meet.

We started the food donation on 11th December - a public holiday for the sales office. The first family we visited was Sheldon Yap. Sheldon is autistic and hyper. To compound his family's woes, his younger brother is diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and his mum suffers from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (aka SLE - a normally terminal disease). With 3 in the family needing constant medical attention, Sheldon's father can only rely on part time jobs. Our food donation was timely as Christmas was around the corner and they needed to replenish their food stock.

The next family was Pak Munir of Taman Cheras Baru. All the Malay families were picked from a list of almost 50 names provided by the Pusat Zakat Islam Bahagian Ampang Selatan. Pak Munir suffers from lung cancer and his wife has breast cancer. One of the employees also donated Zakat for the Muslim families. This was duly handed to Pak Munir by Syida. For the Malay/Muslim families, the food donation was also a timely gesture as Hari Raya Haji (or Qurban) is the following week.

The third and final family for the first day of donation was Pak Dahlan. Pak Dahlan drives a school bus and since this is the school holidays, he effectively has no job. On top of that he cannot do any other type of jobs as he suffers from arthritis and nerves (his hands tends to be unsteady and shakes). Pak Dahlan also potters in the garden and has some impressive orchids to show for his hobby. Syida and Marya got an orchid plant each from Pak Dahlan as we left. And of course he was also given a share of the Zakat donation.

The next day, a different group of volunteers went to Pak Halim's house. Pak Halim has a disease which caused his feet and legs to swell up tremendously. He is essentially bed ridden. And of course medical bills also contributed to the financial state that the family is in. Pak Halim got the last share of the donated Zakat.

The last family to be visited on this second day was Yap Pui Wen. Pui Wen is also autistic. Her parents has essentially abandoned her to the care of her Grandma.

The last family targeted for food donation is an Indian family and another group of volunteers has undertaken to deliver that. This is the family of Krishnamah a/p Sinnappayan. They stay in a badly maintained apartment in Taman Desaria. Krishnamah just lost her husband 20 days ago. He was suffering from epilepsy. Yet despite this, the family had not been able to qualify for Social Welfare aid!! With his passing, they will try again with his death certificate to confirm the destitute state that the family is in. We wish them best of luck. As a followup, they would welcome any donation of old/ second hand clothes and cash donations are also welcomed. They constantly have problems making ends meet and to pay the rent. Krishnamah sells kacang putih (friend nuts) and also do domestic work like house cleaning to supplement the meagre income for the family.

One critical lesson that can be learned from this is that in almost all cases, Medical bills have been a big financial burden on these families. Having special children in their homes places a lot of stress, not only financially, but also emotionally.

Take care of your health as it is the one thing you cannot purchase no matter how rich you are.