Meals on Wheels (MOW) Celebrate HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI (17th Aug 2014)

Celebrating the joy of giving

Meals on Wheels (MOW) celebrated Hari Raya Aidil Fitri with Children from Persatuan Kebajijan Anak-Anak Yatim Al-Habbah on Sunday, 17th August. An annual tradition since MOW was established, the event was aimed at bringing joy to the Children, and to express appreciation to the many dedicated Ustaz who worked selflessly to provide shelter, education and care for the Children.

Road leading to the Home

MOW baby van "survived" the bumpy and dirt road to the Home

The Children's Home is literally "in the woods", away from the hustle and bustle of the KL city. As the MOW baby van curved up the dirt road leading to the Home, I had this nostalgic "balik kampung" feeling. And couldn't help but hummed to the tune of the ever popular song by the late Sudirman ...

Balik kampung oh oh...( 3X )

Hati girang

Ho ho... Balik kampung (3X)

Hati girang

Nestled along the hillside, the 3-storey white building is surrounded by lush greeneries and mature trees. This is both, home and school to 30 plus children, some from broken homes, some orphans and the rest from poor families from the neighbourhood.

The Children's Home

What a pleasant view ... lush greeneries in the backdrop

When we arrived, we could hear the unmistakable sound of festivities in full swing with cheerful Raya music in the background. The moment we stepped onto the porch, we were ushered by the bubbly Ustaz Ghani to officiate the presentation of tables and chairs from MOW donors to the Home. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was organized by the Ustaz and we were so touched by the simple yet thoughtful gesture.

Drum roll please .... whats behind the ribboned door???

Trying out the brand new tables and chairs

Doa selamat

Catherine and Ustaz Ghani - doing a "duet"???

Happy Children

This was followed by a simple but delicious chicken rice meal, complete with cendol and kuih raya for dessert, and the Malaysian signature drink of teh tarik, all laid-out in buffet-style. En Khalid who is the caterer for the lunch gave us a very good price, and from the feedback we received, the food was yummy! Terima kasih En Khalid!

Puan Aida helping herself to the buffet lunch

Finger-licking good chicken!

I chatted with three of the younger children eating in one of the rooms in the Home - Zaim from Setapak, Khairudin who sometimes visit his "nenek" in Taman Bolton, and Aizat whose mother works as a cook in a canteen from Taman Medan. From their clean plates, it is evident they loved the chicken rice. But more importantly, they all looked TRULY HAPPY ... and this is testament to the effort put in by the Ustaz and caretakers of the Home.

Three satisfied and happy Children, after the yummy lunch

While the younger children were savouring their lunch, some of older children were in the make-shift football ground, trying to score as many goals as they can as there were prizes for the top two teams. Catherine's boys couldn't resist joining in the football games. Winners were presented with brand new jerseys, while the losers did not go home empty-handed.

Team pic after the game

Washing their feet after barefoot-football

Winners grinning away with their prized yellow tees

Rep from runners-up with their red tees, which is not too bad a prize for coming in second place

In the midst of lunch and football, Ustaz Ghani conducted a tour around the Home and its surroundings - including the kitchen, the big shower area with a well and a quaint little pond at the back of the home, where one can just sip coffee on a relaxing day (which I am sure the Ustaz does so once in a while to get some quiet time).

The kitchen

"Bilik" mandi

Best part of the neighbourhood ... to get some peaceful and quiet moments

It was such a pleasant and fulfilling morning for everyone at the event. Our MOW Volunteers had so much fun, trying to pluck duku but with little success. The neighbours witnessed this and were so kind to pluck some for us to take home. Of course, bro Andrew could not resist trying some on the spot.

How difficult can this be!

Come on Andrew ... just push slightly to the right!

Oh well ... at least we still get to take home some

Time to taste the fruits of my hard work

Also at the event was Puan Fuzi Hanim, the founder of Fuzi Magic, an organisation with a mission to Build Bridges of Goodwill by linking the privileged to the under-privileged, with the aim to inspire children to be assets to the country and blessing to the world. Puan Aida, an MOW Volunteer, and her children also joined us for this Raya celebration.

Pn Aida and her children

Catherine chatting with Pn Fuzi Hanim

The event ended with presentation of a large rice cooker from MOW donors to the Home, token of appreciation in the form of hampers to En Khalid, the Chairman of the Home, and Datin Catherine, the Chairman of MOW.  Common theme in the closing speeches given by En Khalid, Datin Catherine and Kim, was the role of education in the Children's pursuit of a better life.

En Khalid, looking pensive, and probably mulling the Children's future

Salam terima kasih to all our MOW donors and supporters for this event, including:

Loh Yoke Khoon
Chew Yoo Wee
Shakila
Cheah Chor Eng
Dennis
Felicia Ong
Stone Empire Marketing Sdn Bhd 
Malaysia Steel Works ( KL) Bhd

****- Any names which we may have left out unintentionally in the list we appreciate if you can please notify us

and to our MOW volunteers for spending a good part of their Sunday with the Children, in the spirit of Ramadan.

Last but not least, we would like to recognise the effort put in by Ustaz Ghani, Ustaz Rasheed, En Khalid and all the teachers and caretakers of the Home in making the Raya Celebration a most joyous and memorable one for all.

.

To view more pictures visit

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100609797867594.1073741873.61305812&type=3
Posted by: Kim
Pictures courtesy of: Amar

Meals on Wheels (MOW) Celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri (17th Aug 2014)

In keeping up with our tradition of celebrating festive seasons with the less fortunate, Meals on Wheels will be bringing cheer to the children in Persatuan Kebajikan Anak-Anak Yatim Dan Tahfiz Al-Habbah in Batu Caves, in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

The dirt road leading to the Home.

Front entrance of the Home

The Home is both a religious school and a hostel, established in 2011. Thirty six boys, aged from 8 years to 22 years, live and study in this Home, under the care and tutelage of four Ustaz. Of the 36 residents, 18 are from poor families, 9 are orphans and 9 are Mualaf (muslim converts).

This is where classes are conducted where the children sit on mats on the floor.

They hope to convert this into a library when they have funds.

One of two book shelves in the library

This is where they sleep

One of the residents in the Home is Fikri (not his real name). He is a muslim convert. His mother lives and works in Chow Kit and his father allegedly lives in Sarawak. He was found roaming around the streets of Chow Kit by one of the Ustaz, and was brought to the Home to live and study, with the permission from his mother. Since then, he has never seen the mother and neither has she tried to contact him.

Some of the kids at the Home

Fikri is just one of the many less fortunate children at the Home who are deprived of parental and family love and care. Fortunately, he now has a place to call Home. Nevertheless, during festive seasons such as this, is when they feel the most lonely.

So, do come and join us at this event to show your care and support for these children, and celebrate Hari Raya Aidil Fitri with them.

Event details as follows:

Date of event: Sunday, 17th August 2014
Time: 11am - 1:30pm
Venue: Persatuan Kebajikan Anak-Anak Yatim Dan Tahfiz Al-Habbah
Address: Lot 2214, Jalan JU 14, Taman Jasa Utama, Off Jalan Sungai Tua, Batu Caves, Selangor
Contact: Ustaz Ghani (019-3609244) and Ustaz Rasheed (011-13187227)

The children currently sit on the floor in the "classroom" and the Ustaz has requested for some study tables and chairs. Other items requested are in the Wish List below.

WISH LIST

As usual, the there will be food and games at the event, thus we need your support as follows:

Budget	Quantity	Unit cost	Sub-Total	Donors
Lunch (chicken rice, drinks, fruits and kuih raya to be supplied by a Halal caterer who sponsors the Home's daily meal) for 60 pax (36 children, 4 staff, 20 MOW volunteers)	60	RM10	RM600
Prizes for games (the Ustaz will purchase sports tee-shirt)	20	RM25	RM500
Large rice cooker	1
Study tables (long tables for 3-4 students, the Home will get a quotation for this)	10
Plastic Chairs with back rest (the Home will get a quotation for this)	40
TOTAL			RM1,100

For the rice cooker, you may sponsor the actual item. For all other items, you may donate cash (any amount) by banking into our account as below:

Account Name: Ti Ratana Community Centre Penchala
CIMB Account No: 14660000259057

Please email a copy of the deposit slip to trccpenchala@gmail.com and specify if the donation is for a specific wish list item or general expenses for this event.


VOLUNTEERS

For logistic and security reasons, all volunteers who wish to participate in this event are requested to PRE-REGISTER your name and contact number with us by emailing trccpenchala@gmail.com.

Please arrive at the Ti-Ratana Penchala Centre by 9:30am for a briefing. We will depart the Centre for the Home in Batu Caves at 10:00am sharp. No transportation will be provided to get to the event venue and back to the Centre, so kindly ensure you make your own arrangements through car pooling.


ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EVENT?

Please email trccpenchala@gmail.com.

Come join us in this festive celebration and show the CHILDREN we CARE!

Posted by: Kim
Pictures courtesy of: Kim

MOW CELEBRATE - Hari Raya Aidil Fitri with Children at HKL

Ever since we started our MOW HAPPY CHILD program, it has always been our wish to visit sick children in the hospital, and organize activities to bring some cheer to them. We finally got our wish when we celebrated Hari Raya Aidil Fitri with children in the Institute of Pediatric in Hospital Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 8th Sept 2013.

As usual, our journey started off from our centre in Penchala, where the MOW van is ready to be loaded with goodies for the children and hospital staff.

After a short briefing, MOW volunteers set off for the hospital. Upon arrival, we quickly offloaded the goodies onto a trolley and headed into the ward. We were quite amused as it was our first time loading  stuff onto a gurney instead of the usual supermarket trolley:)

We were greeted by the sister-on-call who informed us that the chosen ward, KK5, had less than 10 children, and that she would have to go to four to five wards to get 40 children. Furthermore, most of the children are quite ill and not particularly mobile. Our program for that morning was to gather all the 40 children in a ward and have fun with games and other activities. We had to quickly review and rework our program to accommodate the situation.

Fortunately, everything worked out. Instead of having all the children in a single ward, the MOW volunteers made their "rounds" to several wards, including the ICU, the High Dependency Ward and Burnt Unit. With armful of goodies including Minions soft toys, tee-shirts, chocolates, jigsaw puzzles, and coloring books, MOW volunteers happily visited and chatted with the children and their mothers.

However, the biggest excitement for the children (and the nurses too), was the appearance of three superheroes ... namely Spiderman, Incredible Hulk and Captain America, thanks to Bro Steven, Bro Andrew and Bro Ivan. The superheroes had as much fun as the children, if not more! I think the three "superheroes" were reliving their childhood dreams!

KFC's Chicky Mascot was also a big hit, entertaining the children, together with KFC staff who brought party packs for the children.

Lunch was of course KFC lunch box and yummy cup cakes.

The dedicated hospital staff were also not forgotten, and were presented with goodie bags by our MOW volunteers.

After completing our ward rounds and making sure we visited all the 40 children, MOW volunteers gathered for a group picture in the lobby of the Institute of Pediatric, with the colorful wall as the backdrop.

Everyone was all smiles and warm-hearted, after a very MEANINGFUL and BEAUTIFUL morning with the CHILDREN who were indeed the VVIPs and STAR of the day. Ti-Ratana Community Centre Penchala, Datin Catherine Lai, thanked everyone who made the visit a success, and hoped that our new volunteers will continue to support our MOW programs.

We would also like to thank the following donors whose generous donations helped pay for the expenses for this event:

• Selina & Donny Loo
• Cindy Lim-Tan
• Mary Chia
• Felicia
• Empire Stone

And also to ...

• Julian for the beautiful and yummy cup cakes
• Ivan, Andrew, Sharon, Steven for the cute and adorable Minion soft toys
• Ivan, Andrew, Steven for making the effort to dress up as Superheroes
• Bro Lim and Calvin for being our photographer and videographer for the day
• Catherine Lai for the AnimalCare tee-shirts
• Mr & Mrs Tai for the chocolates
• Fieda, Nini and Iffa from KFC for your enthusiastic participation in this event
• All volunteers who contributed to this event, in one way or another.

KUDOS TO ALL!!!

Click below to view a video of the celebration.

http://youtu.be/Sg-rjji69p0

Posted by: Kim

Pictures courtesy of: Calvin Teh
Video courtesy of: Bro Lim