23.7.08

Taman Megah's Handicapped and Disabled Children's Home

i write this with utmost difficulty as i began to dig and dig and dig more on the home that so few of us are going to visit this saturday. i have made my peace in asking and highlighting to all the people that i know to come and help and also to spread the cheer around this particular home, and now it is time for me to concentrate on the home itself.


I was touched by a story of a young blind, celebral palsy 2 year old boy of which what happened to him made me felt angry, betrayed and sad. It made me felt that I wished I was God so that I could scoop those unwanted ones from any near death experience or stop those unscrupulous parents who has too many irresponsible acts up to their sleeves to even think about their children. But here is his story.


This boy was sent to the Home when he was only 11 months old by his father, of which I guess he could not cope up with taking care of the baby anymore as he needed more attention than any normal baby. I am not sure where is the mother back then as she was not mentioned. However a few days later the father and mother came back and expressed their attention to take back the baby as they wanted to take care of him themselves. Of course the Home encourages this, as it is always better to have their own parents to take care of their own children. Not long after that, a worker of the Home wanted to throw a pile of rubbish at the rubbish dump out in front. Suddenly at the corner of her eyes, she saw a box that was moving under a tree nearby the Home. She went closer to take a look , lo and behold the blind, celebral palsy little baby boy was squirming in the box. Lord knows how long he has been there and I am not even sure if the heat had gotten to him, or if there were any ants or stray animals around. Your guess is as good as mine, he was abandoned there by his so-called parents. WHY? The Home is always open, 24 hours a day and accepts anyone and everyone who walks, or crawls or limps into the Home. Why did the parents had to leave their baby son, in a box, under a tree, in the hot sun, with flies, ants, stray animals and rodents probably lurking nearby, hoping that the somebody from the Home will catch a glimpse of the box, and hopefully takes a look inside, and hopefully takes in the baby to safety?? Where in the world did they came from??!!


This are just one of the stories that I managed to find from the Net and it is courtesy from http://babysashanmom.blogspot.com/. I will find out more this Saturday, as it takes stories like this to actually reach to the society and make them learn that a lot of people out there need our help.


As we know the Home is housing more than a 100 people, children and adults alike. Residents around SS24/10 are constantly complaining that there are too many children and too noisy in the Home. I figure that they too need a certain peaceful atmosphere in their neighbourhood, so okay we should not blame them. But what we want is solution. Thus they are eyeing in building on a land nearby in Taman Sea. So far as of today, they have already paid the 10% to secure the land. However according to the manager, Mr Baskin, they are some minor problems which have led to the delay of securing it completely. Well I am not really sure what are the problems, but I hope to find out this Saturday. Mr Baskin also mentioned that the construction of the building will only commence next year, thus it will be a year or more for the children to bear with the current home that they have now.



As far as I know this Home survives fully on donations from NGOs, good samaritans, anonymous donors, daily donation from the public and donation drive or funds. I am not even sure how are they going to raise funds (amounting to half a Million) to complete the construction of their new home. Man it really takes a miracle to help them because donation alone would not even cover that. What more with the daily expenses that they have to incur for the residents?


They need people to take care of the 60-70 odd children below the age of 12, mainly for their sanitary needs, food, massage theraphy for those who cannot move, medicines, constant care for those who cannot care for themselves. I mean to cater for these 70 odd special children, they need at least 1 helper to 5 children, that would be a whopping 14 helpers alltogether (and this is just for the children below 12).


How about for those above 12 and are school going children? There are unfortunately some children who are not handicapped or disabled but was abandoned by their parents. Yes, they need tutors who know how to handle them and to reach out to them as they are completely different from our children. Their learning capabilities will sometimes frustrate those who are not used to it. A simple phrase of "I want to eat" may take them a while to digest or write. Patience is a virtue here, and there are not many volunteers who will do it for free. Special education comes with a price. It includes effort, time and love as well. Do we all have this, even with our children? What more to these special ones?


I just cannot help to wonder if something could have been done earlier on to detect the abnormality of the children from the mother's womb itself, could there be a cure or maybe a medicine to help prevent more damage to the child, thus lead to less suffering on the child now? I know that the parents might be poor or lack of knowledge to take for their unborn baby or just maybe they were destined to have a special child in their midst. But whatever it is, I know of parents who are willing to take up the challenge to nurture, educate, love, care and pamper their special child all on their own. Thank God for the support from their family and friends, as without them they would not be able to do it. I respect this families and my prayers are with them.


As for the children and residents of Taman Megah Handicapped and Disabled Home, I hope that the visit this Saturday will help them to realise that there are a lot of people out there who are really sincere in helping and easing up their burden. I hope that the caretakers and management of this Home, helmed by the passion and love of their founder, the late Mr S.K. Manikumar would endure the hardship and frustration whenever they encounter cases of abandonement, lack of funds or supplies and even lack of volunteers. Pray for those who are going this Saturday so that their presence will cheer up the residents, pray for those who had contributed in cash and kind so that they will receive the blessings that they deserved, and pray for those who will come again and again to help these organisations to achieve their common objective - to just lend a helping hand...



4.6.08

The easiest way to donate!

A lot of us want to donate but we do not know how. We wanna give to that beggar with no legs, no arm and practically crawling on the street, but we are just damn scared to think that this beggar is part of a syndicate, or he himself is a multi millionaire and gets his money from begging.

Hhaaiii!

The mentality as well as the fear is there, cos it has been proven that some of us were conned before. So we refused to help!

And now I introduce to you the revolutionary of donation. Just click a link, and instead of you paying, other sponsors will pay based on the number of clicks for that particular cause.

We take a real life example. Rozella just requested a handful of us to spread a word on this website. Just by clicking as many as you can, you will be helping a lot of women out there to conduct mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. It is easy now isn't it. All it needs is TRAFFIC and CLICKS!

I found out a few other similar sites like this, and it is all worth clicking and donating. Check it out and do your bit...

http://brentsplace.info/freedonations.shtml
http://www.habitat.org/ap/

1.6.08

Charity football tournament

Christian Care Centre (CCC-FGA church) will be organising a football charity tournament in less than 7 hours time. It is a great way to foster relationship between the outside world with our brothers in CCC as well as our Singaporean brothers - Teen Challenge Centre.

As both centres houses rehabiliated and healed drug addicts (among others), I am very proud to be a part of the tournament as it encourages our brothers to be confident and committed through the spirit of playing football.

I guess sometimes counselling or hard gruelling sessions with a troubled one, may not succeed in opening up that person. And this is why we recognise the need to foster trust and dependability through sports, especially football.

Please do pray that this tournament would be a success and whatever good intentions that we wanted to instill in every player would happen on this day.

27.5.08

Welcome Hospice Services, Tanjung Arang

A statue of Mother Mary with her hand outstretched as if to receive the souls of those who were shunned from family and community, greeted us when we reached the hospice. I did not know what to expect but as always I geared myself to expect the worst. What I knew that there were 30 patients or occupants in this place who are contracted with the virus HIV and were given treatments to prolong their life and also to ease their pain and suffering.



We had a short briefing by the person manning the centre and he gave us an overview of how the centre was operated, when it was established, how many other centres are there, basically the whole nine yards. Currently the centre is housing 33 occupants and there are plans to build more rooms to house more. Unfortunately due to the increasing medical costs that each patient incur is unbearably high, thus the centre are unable to accept more.



Let's just say that the budget for each patient that is given by the government is not enough. The centre has to bear the rest of it, by selling their own organic plants that they plant on their own as well as doing odd jobs whenever it is required outside the centre. They also rely heavily on donations. It also really helped when they received a special recognition from the Malaysian Aids Council last year. But is this enough to sustain them another year?



Currently each patient is registered with the Sungai Buloh Hospital for a planned treatment for free. They would have to go to the hospital and take this treatment on the same day at the same time, or else the treatment would not work. Moreover, if the first stage of treatment is missed, that particular patient would have to bear the next stage of treatment on his own, which will be more expensive. Here the centre has a case where this person missed his first treatment a couple of times. The hospital had no choice but to stop the first stage treatment. This patient coupled with a string of other diseases, could not cope with the high expenses that he had to incur for his second treatment. Thus now he is at the centre, not knowing what his future holds for him. Darn it.



Welcome Hospice Services has several homes under their credit. One of which that houses healed drug addicts, called Positive Living Community. These are ex-patients who were brought from the streets, stripped off their lust for drugs and slowly trying to gain respect from the community and family members. Actually there are several reasons why they remained in the centre. First, they found their true family here. And second, their real family cannot accept them anymore. In the centre, together with the love from the caregivers alike, they regain their confidence and self worth. In fact they have their own drama group - Falling Leaves, which will be doing a nation wide tour soon. They will be in Sabah performing this coming 31st May. Those who love theatre should go for this as the performers are the occupants themselves depicting their whole life story. Pretty impressive.



So what do they need now, you ask me. On top of what the centre needs to survive and provide (canned food, rice, sugar, bedsheets, pillows, perishable food, clothes, cooking oil etc), the other aspects that is much needed is the human interaction. The occupants range from as young as 20 years old to an uncle named Mr Wong who is 74years old, are all either abandoned or hardly visited by family and friends for fear of contracting the virus themselves.



A refresher course, the virus HIV can be only be contracted by having sexual intercourse, sharing of needles and mother through baby. Fortunately if detected fast, there is a treatment plan for pregnant mothers who are HIV positive to take in order for the virus to not reach the baby.

Whatever it is, they need to have that sense of belonging again to the outside world. WHat if it was one of our closest friends or our relatives? What if there was a 50/50 chance of them to kick off that drug habit and live a normal life, if not better? I personally relate to this very well. I had a relative who was way out there and one day he just vanished. We thought he was done for. But one sweet day, he came back with clean cut hair and pressed clothes with a Pastor. He has turned to a new leaf and walking in the light of God. How the love of men/women had changed him so much..

We had done our part for the day, I might say. We sang, we visited, we talked, we planned and we visualize.



What else can be done to help them? They need to survive on their own and they need to be taught how to fish, and not to be fed fish all the time. We all could see that there were tremendous things that could be done for this hospice centre.



But the question is now, will you have the initiative to go and find out how to help? Will there be funds for it? How many more that has to be turned down due to lack of funds and ultimately our 'tak apa' attitude, thinking that there are others who will help? Why can't I help?

Let's just ponder on that..
But please do not ponder too long. It is better to help one, than to be bogged down by helping too many. It just takes one to make a difference.

22.5.08

Malaysian Artistes for Unity

I got this clip from Cathy and it is simply superb.

I love the lyrics and the music itself.

It really focuses on unity, peace and freedom.

I think for a change instead of passing chain letters on peace and freedom in text, I wanna pass this clip instead.



Hold on brother hold on
The road is long. We’re on stony ground
But I’m strong. You ain’t heavy

Oh there’s a misspoken truth that lies
Colors don’t bind, oh no.
What do they know? They speak falsely.

Chorus:
Here in my home
I’ll tell you what its all about
There’s just one hope here in my heart
One Love undivided
That’s what it’s all about
Please won’t you fall in one by one by one [with me]?

Push back sister won’t you push back?
Love won’t wait. Just keep pushing on.
Yes I’m strong. You ain’t heavy.

Oh don’t you worry about that…
What we have the shadows can’t deny
Don’t you know it’s now or never?

Rap:
[Malay: TRANSLATED]
Years of fears and years of tribulation
The heart keeps searching for that endless devotion

[Chinese: TRANSLATED]
Hand in hand we’ll march like blood brothers
I speak for my people hope we’ll find peace forever

[Tamil: TRANSLATED]
May the road ahead quench my thirst for success
May the road behind echo a song of the blessed

[English]
So I will let it be known yes I feel it in my bones
No matter where I roam this is home sweet home
Sing!

- Words & Music by Pete Teo featuring rap by KLG Sqwad &
Altimet. copr Redbag Music 2008. All Rights Reserved -

14.5.08

More on our charity drive - Sg Buloh

As mentioned earlier on in my post, a group of us will be going to Sg Buloh this coming Monday (I believe a public holiday for all) to a sort of hospital or hospice to a number of drug addicts staying there.

Our programme would start with a prayer from one of the members going there (as this occupants are mostly Catholics), followed by fellowship, a tour in the mansion and maybe those who have plumbing or painting or any type of fixing skills, would lend a hand in repairing what is need to be repaired.

Well what is tragic and sad about what I found out regarding this place is that it is sort of like a final place for the occupants. In other words (rather harsh words actually), if they are not out there sick and about to die, then they are in this hospice, having a roof on top of their heads, with good company and courageous people taking care of them - sick and about to die.

The purpose of us going there is of course for the fellowship. They are also in need of bedsheets (as mentioned earlier on) and we are still in need of at least 10.

But if those who have more to donate, again feel free to contact me at 012-329 3258 to pass me the items before this Sunday. We will arrange for the time and place. If there are a lot of people, then I will arrange for a neutral place and time this Sunday, as well.

Please do help in any way you can. Pray for journey mercy for all of us who are driving. And lastly do pray for the occupants of this hospice as they take their last journey in this world.

9.5.08

Charity drive to Sg Buloh

A few friends and family members will be donating their time and effort to lend a helping hand and also to spread a cheer or two this coming May 19th to a drug centre in Sg Buloh.

Before we go we do need 30 bedsheets, but I think we do need more than that, however so far this is what they required.

So if any of you would want to donate some of your old bedsheets, do give me a holler or call me at 0123293258.

Facebook Group - Doss Family and Friends will be having activities now and then as part of our 'give-back' to the society.

THus we need your support and encouragement whenever there is a call for help.

I will post up pictures and more information on this May 19th charity visit.

Till then!