Adventure & Voluntary Work Combined

Whenever I needed to take a break from my voluntary work, usually I’d organise an adventure trip somewhere with my adventure loving gal-friends. White water rafting… caving… hiking… and the likes. Or sometimes I’d just grab a promotional low-fare air ticket and travel somewhere.

After rounds of back-to-school shopping in December, I felt I needed another break. But my next planned trip is in early Feb. Nothing earlier.

Then suddenly one of the worst floods hit Malaysia, particularly the east coast, seeing homes destroyed, and people struggling to get back on their feet. For those who did not lose their homes, cleaning up the mess in a house full of mud is no easy task.

It then dawned on me that maybe my adventure-loving friends may want to help and clean one or two houses. So I asked, and the next thing I got were positive responses. Immediately I started organising things. This was going to be another voluntary work (nothing to do with my usual voluntary work though) AND at the same time an adventure for us since none of us had done anything like this before. Adventure and voluntary work combined. A perfect kind of break for me!

First, to choose a place. The floods in Kelantan was more devastating, however the road conditions are bad and we’d take longer to get there. We’re just a group of ladies and none of us had a four wheel drive. In the end we opted to go to Temerloh, which was also badly affected, but more easily accessible via the highway, although when the plan was first thought out, part of the highway was still closed to all vehicles. We figured that by the time we planned to go (that was from 10th to 11th January), the flood water would recede and the highway would be opened.

Meanwhile, the planning and preparations continued. I got a friend in Pahang to scout around for a house to clean. My target was to clean the house of either a single mother or an elderly person. We weren’t targeting many homes as we knew we had limitations in terms of manpower (or should I say womanpower?) and time. We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone, right?

Since we were going ourselves, we thought we might as well bring some necessities for the flood victims. So next thing was to ask for contributions in cash and in kind. Transportation too needed to be arranged. How would we be going? Whose car?

Preparations went quite well. The friend in Pahang did our homework for us. Other than identifying a house for us to clean, she also informed us of the necessities most sought after at this time… blankets, comforters, pillows etc. She even got us free accommodation for the night at her brother’s quarters. Despite doing things on a small scale, we still managed to get close to RM10K in contributions. Malaysians in general are such kind-hearted people!

Monday, 10th January 2015: 7 of us made a move in 3 vehicles… one MPV, one SUV and one sedan. All 3 full of stuff either to be used to clean the house identified, or to be distributed to affected kampong-folks. Another lady with her 3 children joined in another car; although they were just going for a day trip and not staying overnight.

Our first destination was the quarters where we were spending the night. That would be our “base” in Temerloh. Met up with Jehan from MNS Pahang who was on a “Back-to-school” voucher distribution mission and passed her 50 school bags we had bought in KL so she could distribute them together with the vouchers.

After unloading things from our vehicles, leaving only the items needed for our cleaning mission, we headed off to the house identified. The house belonged to Pakcik J, a 70 year old man without children, staying all by himself. When we arrived, a group of guys (volunteers from another group) were just done clearing the mud from inside Pakcik J’s house. Phew! We were spared from having to carry out one of the toughest work in the mission! All we had to do then was to clean the house.

However, we weren’t THAT lucky. Apparently there was a burst pipe somewhere and so there was no water supply at Pakcik J’s house. Thankfully however, the day before I had asked my Pahang contact to buy a water tank big enough to store some water. So although we would have preferred to use a water-jet (which we did bring along with us), we had no choice but to use pails of water to wash the walls and floor of Pakcik’s house

.

Given the limited source of water, I think we did considerably well, although we weren’t quite satisfied with the results. We told Pakcik’s younger sister (who’d be there almost every day to cook) to call us if there was water supply the next morning.

Since there wasn’t much we could do at Pakcik’s house on day 1, by noon we headed back to our base to sort out items to be distributed to flood victims. By 2pm, we were on the move again. Again, we had to depend on our Pahang contact to show us the way. The first house we visited was the home of a single mother with 7 children – all still studying. This was one family which would need help even without the flood. Next, we went to distribute the items we brought to flood victims in badly affected kampongs. The occupants of all the houses visited were all happy to get the comforters, travel mattresses, pillows and blankets we offered them. According to them, nobody has yet to offer them those items. Ever since they returned home, most of them had been sleeping on mats.

Distribution of the items ended our activities for day 1. We headed back to our base to get a good rest, anticipating that we would continue cleaning up Pakcik J’s house the next day.

As anticipated, Pakcik J’s sister called us the next morning to inform us that water supply was back. So off we went, to complete our initial mission. Although there was no electricity, someone came with a water pump generator set, complete with a jet spray. That would definitely make it much easier to clean the walls and floor of the Pakcik’s house.

However, because of the roof high floods that took place earlier, there was mud so thick all around Pakcik’s house. If we were to spray lots of water to clean the inside of the house, where would the water flow? Even the hole in the bathroom where water was supposed to flow out, was fully covered by soil and mud from the outside. The solution? We had to come-up with a make-shift drainage system first…

With the jet spray, it was so much easier to wash the inside of the house. The walls which were brownish when we came, turned white after being sprayed. We even used detergents to clean the house. Someone even commented that the house was even cleaner that it was before the floods.

We were done by around 1 pm. Cleared our things, said our goodbyes (Pakcik’s sister who was there again to cook for us, hugged us all even though we were dirty and smelly) and headed back to our base to shower and got ready to head home.

We left Temerloh by about 4 pm. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Another cucu… Cek Mek 2

Those who have been following my blog may remember my little Cek Mek Molek, born to unwed 19 year old mother, Sharifah, 5 years ago. I actually had to send Sharifah to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning 2 weeks before her scheduled c-sect. Sharifah, who initially wanted to take care of Cek Mek, ended up leaving the little girl at the shelter home.

Today I went to visit another baby born to unwed mother. Dahlia’s 15 year old daughter, Dilla, who was raped earlier this year, gave birth to a baby girl 2 days ago. Seeing the cute little baby girl reminded me so much of my little Cek Mek. So I’m just going to call this cutie pie Cek Mek 2.

There are huge differences between the 2 cases though. In Sharifah’s case, it wasn’t rape, and it couldn’t even be considered statutory rape because Sharifah was already 19. And although she didn’t want to give away the baby for adoption, Sharifah and her mother initially wanted to let the baby stay at a shelter home first, visit the little girl on a monthly basis, and then she’d bring the girl home when she’s ready. But after some time, Sharifah stopped visiting and even changed her phone number, the lady in charge at the shelter home could no longer get hold of her.

In Dilla’s case, the whole thing happened without her consent, and even if she did give her consent, it would still be considered statutory rape as she is only 15 years old. With the support of her mother, Dilla too wants to take care of the baby. In fact, she told Dahlia that she’d run away from home if Dahlia decides to give away the baby for adoption. And in this case, the baby will be brought home immediately after discharged from the hospital. No transits at any shelter homes.

I must say I am impressed with Dilla’s determination. Despite all that she had gone through, she still managed to score 6A 2B for her PT3 exams recently. And despite all the kay-poh-chees at the hospital (people got curious seeing such a young girl at the maternity ward, especially with her age written underneath her name at her hospital bed), Dilla was all smiles when I went to visit her today.

And she doesn’t plan to just stay home and take care of her baby. She plans to take care of her baby (with the help of her mother of course) AND take up a 2 year culinary course, at a college sponsored by the state government. Upon completion of the 2 year course, she will obtain a certificate, after which she can either start working, or she can use the cert to continue up to diploma level.

I really salute this girl. She’s only 15. Most of the 15 year olds I know would probably lock themselves in their rooms if they had to go through what Dilla had to go through.

Cek Mek 2 is lucky to have a mother like Dilla (and a supportive grandma like Dahlia). They still have a long way to go, but I like what I’m seeing so far.

May they all have a bright future ahead.

This is definitely a case I’m going to follow up on a monthly basis until they can be independent enough, insyaaAllah.

Done with this year’s Back-To-School-Shopping

For the past few years, I had always been reserving December as my back-to-school-shopping (BTSS) month. Previously I used to bring one family at a time to the shopping centres to shop for the children’s schooling needs. But as my list of clients grew longer, I could no longer afford to bring them one family at a time. So since 2 or 3 years ago, I started doing the BTSS batch by batch, based on where my clients stay.

This year the board decided to have it as some sort of a special event to be listed under our calendar of events. So for the Ipoh BTSS this year, we had a bigger group consisting of more clients, with a few other volunteers helping out as well. The majority of the clients needing assistance were still my clients anyway.

I started off with Kuala Kangsar, with 4 children from 2 families. Not a problem handling this one. Both families were my clients anyway.

Next up, Slim River. Again, 4 children from 2 families and both were my clients.

Round 3 was in Ipoh. 23 children from 9 families were my clients. Thank goodness there were a few other volunteers to help supervise. But I still had to swipe my card for all 9 families. Another volunteer paid first for the children of her client.

For round 4, I went to Kampar. 4 children from 3 families. Although one of them wasn’t my client, it wasn’t too bad handling it alone as there were only 4 of them.

Next, I went to Batu Gajah. 14 children from 8 families, including 2 families who aren’t my clients. And I was doing it alone.

Round 6 was in Taiping. 15 children from 7 families, including 1 family who is a client of another volunteer who did not come along. Again, I had to handle it alone.

For round 7, I went to Sungai Siput. 9 children from 4 families. I’m the main buddy to one family with 2 children, and a co-buddy to another family with 1 child. The other 2 families, with 6 children, were clients of 2 other buddies.

Round 7 was supposed to have ended this year’s BTSS, but 2 girls from Ipoh had missed the earlier Ipoh BTSS because of some family problems, so yesterday I took them out to shop for their schooling needs.

After 8 rounds of shopping, 36 families, 75 children and about RM18.5K spent, I am officially done with this year’s BTSS.

I ended up having to shop for 11 additional children who aren’t my clients. Instead of getting additional manpower from other volunteers to help me with my many clients, I ended up getting more children to handle by myself. I think next year I will have to stick to just my clients alone. Let’s just leave the Ipoh BTSS as a special event. The rest? Let the respective Buddies handle themselves.

Time to get updates on my clients

Looking through the list of phone numbers saved in my mobile phone, I noticed quite a number of them belong to clients of Buddies. 67 of the phone numbers belong to either my clients, or the clients of my fellow volunteers (who sometimes tend to call me when they can’t get hold of their own buddy) or the children of my clients who are now big enough to have their own phones and mature enough to call me directly.

With that many clients, how do I keep in touch with them?

Well, initially when I did not have that many clients, I’d be visiting almost all my clients quite regularly. And if they are poor, the visits would usually be on a monthly basis. Yep, I used to visit Lin, Yah, Fuzi and Mrs K on a monthly basis, bringing along some groceries with me as well. And previously, stories of Nuri, Wani and Zainab also cropped up from time to time in this blog. Yep, these are some of my older clients.

But once my list of clients grew, I had to prioritize, visiting the needy ones more often, while the rest would have to do with just phone calls or text messages, and meeting them only occasionally like during our annual Family Day, or during our year-end back-to-school shopping (BTSS) sessions.

So yes, for the past 5 rounds of BTSS, I’ve been taking the opportunity to get some updates from my clients, although when the BTSS involved so many families in the same session, like last week’s BTSS in Ipoh and today’s BTSS in Batu Gajah, even getting that little bit of info from each and every one of them was quite difficult.

Lin is no longer joining this year’s BTSS as her youngest daughter has recently completed her SPM. Nuri’s youngest daughter (who is also HIV+) will be in form 5 this coming year and so this was probably the last time for them to join our BTSS, unless the girl ends up doing form 6. Mrs K has 2 more daughters still in school. The youngest girl, if you remember Baby K who underwent a heart surgery some time back, will be in standard 2. While Mrs K herself didn’t mention anything about Mr K, I do know that Mr & Mrs K are no longer staying together, although I am not too sure if they are just separated or already divorced.

Fuzi’s eldest daughter is already in a local university, and no longer qualifies for our BTSS. The youngest boy should be in standard 3 this coming year, but is still unable to go to school because of citizenship status. You see, Fuzi has yet to obtain PR status despite applying for it a few times already, reason being her husband is no longer around. Her first 4 children however, have Malaysian citizenship by virtue of having a Malaysian father. Her youngest son however, was born out of a rape case, and with a mother who doesn’t even have PR status, the fatherless boy is not considered a citizen. So the poor boy who is going to be 9 next year, is not accepted at any government schools, not even as a foreign student, unless and until Fuzi can get PR status. And if you think that at least her other 4 children are doing ok, Fuzi’s 16 year old son, who has every chance to go to school, has decided to stop going to school. He used to get into all sorts of trouble in school and even when Fuzi sent him to a vocational school, staying at the school hostel, the boy ran away during the night.

I am done yet with this year’s BTSS. Will probably be meeting with Yah this Saturday and Wani next week. I should be able to get more updates, hopefully heart-warming ones.

Shopping again… for a bigger group

For the past years, I’ve been taking my clients for their back-to-school-shopping (BTSS) by myself. Even when I decided to shop for a few families at the same time, I went by myself without involving other volunteers.

This year however, for the bigger Ipoh group, we decided to make it a special event for Buddies, involving not just my clients, but also clients of other volunteers as well. Nonetheless, the majority of the families involved were my clients.

I was initially supposed to have 11 families joining the Ipoh BTSS. However only 9 families turned up as the other 2 families had more important matters to attend to.

Out of the 9 families, 2 came down from Cameron Highlands. Last year I went up to CH to take them shopping. However, this year, they agreed to come down to Ipoh to join the other families, and make things easier for me as well.

So yesterday, after my Saturday pasar tani routine, I went to fetch Aini at her home. I agreed to fetch her despite only having one child still in school, because of all my clients, she’s physically the weakest, needing a walking stick to move around. Her eldest daughter has gone back to the polytechnic where she is studying, while her second son had just completed his SPM.

We reached the hypermarket quite early, and as I expected, we were the first ones there. But it didn’t take long before I started getting calls and text messages from my clients, telling me they had already arrived and was asking me where exactly to find me.

My fellow volunteers too started arriving, including the 3 new trainee volunteers. All in 8 volunteers turned up to help out.

As for the families, I just gave them the guidelines as to what items to choose and how many of each item to buy. Things were quite easy for me initially, leaving them to choose things for themselves with the volunteers helping them out. But when the time came to check out and pay at the cashiers, I had to standby in between 2 counters. The families queued at 2 separate counters, luckily the counters were next to each other. You see, I used my card to pay for my clients (an advance cheque was made out under my name earlier, but I wasn’t about to carry thousands of Ringgit in my handbag, it was safer to pay by card), so I just had to wait in the middle, whichever cashier finished entering the codes for all the items first, I’d go to that counter to make payment. And this continued for 9 families.

Once payment was made, each family needed to show the receipt to the guard to be stamped before leaving. I needed the receipts for my claims and I wasn’t in the position to follow them out and come back in again to pay for the other families. Thank goodness the trainee volunteers were around and waited till the end, so once payment was made, they’d accompany the families out for the receipt to be stamped, after which they’d bring the receipts back to me.

Total amount swiped was RM6,495.95 for 24 children from 9 families. That does not include the RM1.3K+ another volunteer had to pay for the children of her client.

After 3 rounds of BTSS, I’ve already covered 32 children from 13 families. I have another 4 rounds to go, covering at least 30 more children.