THEY WILL ASK thee as to what they should spend on others. Say: "Whatever of your wealth you spend shall [first] be for your parents, and for the near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer; and whatever good you do, verily, God has full knowledge thereof." - Al-Baqarah (2:215)
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Monday 7 December 2015

BTSS & getting updates on the children

After taking a family of 4 children shopping last Wednesday, and another 7 children from 4 families on Saturday, today I continued with Rounds 3 and 4 of my back-to-school-shopping.

3 AND 4? 2 rounds in a day? Well yes, this morning I was in Kuala Kangsar, taking care of the schooling needs of 6 children from 3 families. From Kuala Kangsar, I proceeded straight to Taiping, to take care of 7 other children from 2 families. Since the Kuala Kangsar group finished early, I decided to use the old trunk road from Kuala Kangsar to Taiping. I can’t even remember the last time I used that road.

Anyway, I usually use the BTSS to get updates from my clients on how their children are doing, particularly in their studies. For those under sponsorship, I also need to report to the respective sponsors. So today, other than updates on the children, I also took photos of the children who are under sponsorship. Some sponsors have only seen photos of their sponsored children when they first agreed to sponsor… mostly when the kids were still in primary school. Well, they have grown! So it’s about time I send their latest pictures to the respective sponsors!

This morning, of the 3 families, 4 children of 2 families are under sponsorship. The other family’s schooling needs are covered by our Children Education Fund. All 4 children, 2 in secondary and the other 2 in primary school, are doing quite well in school. They may not be the top students in their school, but hey, getting top 10 in class is still something, especially taking into consideration the hardship they face. Taking photos of these 4 children wasn’t a problem at all. I just told them I needed to take pics of them to be forwarded to their sponsors, and they readily posed.

It was a different story in Taiping though. Of the 2 families, the one with 3 children is under sponsorship. The 3 girls, aged 16, 14 and 12, were really shy. At least it wasn’t so bad because I took a photo of all 3 of them together instead of individual photos of each one. The girls are doing well in school. The older 2 are studying at a fully residential school (both of them at the same school). The older girl who scored 10A 1B in her PT3 last year, got 2nd in class and 5th in the whole form for her recent school exams. The younger girl, got 2nd in class and 30th in the whole form. The youngest, who sat for her UPSR just this year, scored 4A 1B.

The other family from Taiping today was Yah’s. Those who had been following my blog from the start may remember the character “Yah-Ah-Ngau”. I sure had headaches with her character back then. Her children’s back-to-school needs are covered by our Children Education Fund. I did not consider her for sponsorship because once upon a time she seemed to have drifted too far… went heads over heels over Mr Darling even when the guy was trying to steer clear off her…. karaoke-ing when all she depended on was welfare aid… her 2 older girls requested to be sent to orphanages… ohh… those were the days.

Well, Yah is a changed woman now. The children are all staying together with Yah now, and today I could see the love among them. The eldest girl, who entered a vocational college after PMR, is doing quite well, scoring A’s in most of her subjects. Yah’s only son, the ADHD boy, is doing a whole lot better now after he was identified as an ADHD child and is classified as an OKU. He gets to join a special class for special-needs children.

I’ve got 3 more rounds of BTSS to do. One in Slim River, one in Batu Gajah and another round in Ipoh. Planning to finish them all within this week…

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