This year’s Ramadhan/Raya Contributions

Like previous years, every time Ramadhan approaches, quite a number of my friends (including some online friends whom I have never personally met before) would transfer some money into my bank account, to be distributed to the needy families I deal with in my voluntary work.

This year I got close to RM8,000 within a month to be distributed. I decided to distribute some of the amount during early Ramadhan, and then later on nearing Raya I distributed the balances collected.

With so many clients, some staying quite far from Ipoh, I knew I wouldn’t have the time to visit every single client. So I only visited a few, while the rest, I transferred the financial assistance direct into their bank account.

I did visit Imran & family, because I ordered putu kacang from his wife. Imran wasn’t home when I went to visit, but his wife was. Last year the wife concentrated more on making and selling Raya cookies during Ramadhan. This year however, she seemed to concentrate more on sewing clothes. It was good to see that the family is trying their very best to be independent.

I also went to visit Jamilah who broke her wrist in a motor accident about 2 months ago. After undergoing an operation on her wrist, she is still not fully recovered. And with her main source of income being the food stall which she operates alone, having a broken wrist meant no business for her for the time being. For the past 2 months she had been relying totally on welfare aid. Jamilah plans to reopen her food stall after Raya, although her wrist is still not fully healed.

I went to visit Zainab, who seemed to be doing a whole lot better now than the last time I went to visit. Her children too seemed to be doing well, including kakak, the older daughter who has kidney problems.

Immediately after visiting Zainab, I went to visit Aini. They both stay in Ipoh and so there was no problem visiting them both on the same day. Aini seemed to be doing okay. It feels good seeing these families living a much improved life.

As for the rest of the families, I am lucky to have saved their bank account numbers. So all I had to do was to just sit in front of my computer and transfer the money online into their accounts, before informing them about it.

All in all, more than 20 families became recipients of the donations. Some received more, some received less. No, not that I favour some more than others. How much they got depended on their situation. Those with more children, received more of course. And in the case of Jamilah (the one who was involved in the motor accident), she too received more than the rest, as temporary help until she can get back on her own feet.

I’m done with this year’s Raya contribution. My next house visit will probably be after I complete my puasa 6.