Superstar Treatment in Penang for Kapar Kidz.......

Wednesday, 24th November 2010

22 children from Kapar accompanied by their 3 minders were special guests to The Hard Rock Hotel Penang for 3 days 2 nights. The long awaited trip was organized by Music Legend & Philantrophy Zainalabidin and his his lovely wife Angelina Asmawi.

22 children - 11 boys and 11 girls were chosen based on their performance, progress, attendance as well as positive attitude towards their peers at The CNC. It was a very difficult choice to make as we wanted to reward the "right" children. The list was drawn and ammended many, many times before a decision was made.

Infact, organization of this trip took as long as 6 months before it all came togather. Angelina Asmawi singlehandedly organized this wonderful event.

The Penang Trip started from The CNC at 8am on Monday, 22nd November 2010. The children were transported to Penang on a Rapid KL bus. Their tranportation from the sector Kapar-Penang-Kapar was fully sponsored by Rapid KL.

The children congregated at The CNC as early as 7am. Some of them could not sleep the night before as they were very, very excited at the prospect of going on a trip. For all of them that trip was their very first trip out of Kapar and staying in a 5 star hotel!

There were a lot of excitement when the children boarded the bus. They could not stop talking and laughing throughout the journey. They arrived in Penang at 3pm. Upon arrival, they were warmly welcomed by Zainalabidin & Angelina as well as by the Staffs at HRH Penang. They were served with teatime treats at The Starz Diner. The children wolfed down plates of fried rice, fried noodles, fried chicken and sandwiches.

After food, they were taken into their rooms. They were delighted as all the rooms had seaviews! After resting and changing into their shorts, t-shirts & sandals - they were taken to the pool. A game of water volleyball was arranged for them. Both Zainalabidin & Angelina gamely participated in the game. There were hoots of laughter shooting out from the pool, all the time. The children went swimming in the pool after the game.

After the beach game , they went back into their rooms to change for dinner. Dinner was served at 7:30pm at The Pizzaria. The chidren were served with pizzas and pastas. There was a demo at pizza making for them. Thank you Chef Joe & Team for those delicious pizzas & pastas!

After dinner, the children performed for the hotel guests at The Lobby. The crowd went wild when Thison - Michael Jackson of Kapar strutted his stuff! The cheers were louder when The Gelek Galz Group performed their belly dancing routine! The children were amazing!

The children were treated to a supper of the famous Penang Nasi Kandar! Shah & I bought packets of Nasi Kandar for them. They ate hungrily.

On Tuesday, 23rd November - the day started very early for the children. There were down for breakfast at 7am. After sampling the lovely breakfast spread, they went for a walk at the beach. At 9am they were made to practice their dance movement, as they were required to perform that night for a crowd of 500 audience! At 10:15am - they went back to their room to change into shorts, t-shirts & sandals for pool & beach activities. Thank you, Naps, Vivian & Melvis from The Teen Club for taking The Kapar Kidz under their wings.

They had a nice surprise as they were joined by Zainalabidin & Angelina as well as by Dato Sheila Majid & her family at the beach games. After an hour of games, they went back to their rooms to change and were taken to lunch at The Pizzaria. They were served with pizzas & pastas. During lunch time, they were accompanied by a clown sculpting balloons for each of them.

After lunch, at 1:30pm, they were treated to an entertaining Magic Show at The Teen Club. At 2:30pm, The Kapar Kidz were taken around Penang Island in a fleet of vintage cars. This event was sponsored by Heritage Garage. There was a surprise stopover at The Butterfly Farm and this trip was kindly sponsored too.

The children were sent back to their rooms to rest. At 5:30pm - they were dressed and made up for The Concert. A concert by Music Legends - Zainalabidin, Dato Sheila Majid & Amy Search was held for purposes of raising funds for The Kapar Kidz. The Concert was mind blowing. It was amazing to see the support for FRIENDS OF KAPAR that night. Each superstar crooned their famous signature songs.

The Concert started with a performance by our very own Kapar Kidz. They performed a Bollywood dance in all their splendour. The Concert also ended with The Kapar Kidz singing "Ikhlas tapi Jauh" togather with the 3 superstars.

At 10:30pm - the children were treated to a supper of Penang Nasi Kandar which Shah bought. They were so hungry that they polished off everything in a jiffy! After supper they hit the sack.

On Wednesday, 24th November - they had a a bit of a lie in, as they had a late night, the night before. At 8:30am - they came down for breakfast all dressed and packed ready to go home. Right after breakfast, they had sessions of photo taking and after fond goodbyes to Zainalabidin & Angelina - they hopped on the bus for their trip back home to Kapar. They left HRH Penang on the bus at 10am.

They arrived in Kapar at 6pm. By 6:30pm, they were all safely home. No doubt they were exhausted from the trip but they were very happy and grateful for the opportunity to see Penang and sample a life away from Kapar.

Thank You, Zainalabidin, Angelina, Hard Rock Hotel Penang, Rapid KL, Heritage Garage, Dato Sheila Majid, Amy Search as well as corporate sponsors - TV3, Red FM, Iktikadraya, Alstars Production, Rainbow Enterprise - who had supported the concert in aid of the Kapar Kidz @ FRIENDS OF KAPAR. You have touched the children's lives! Thank you for making a difference!

You Made a Difference!

Saturday, 6th November 2010

Thank You So Much to our very generous Donors for making The Light of Cheer 2010 - A Deepavali Feeding Program : a great success! Our grateful thanks to the following:

1. Inner Wheel Club of KL North / IWCKL North (fresh food for 40 families)

2. Premium Nutrients Bhd. - Premium Vegetable Oil S/B : Mdm. Loheswary:
PVO's 1st Lady, Mdm. Karpana Tan Sri Somasundram, Mr. A. T. Abraham
(dried & fresh food items for 30 families)

3. SHELL (Malaysia) - Puan Mariani Ibrahim: SHELL's 1st Lady, Ayisha,
Mark, Guna, Elsie, Vasanthi (food items for 80 families, 180 sarongs &
120 pairs sandals)

4. Mr. Patrick Thevarajah, SEERS Partnership (160 kg lamb/ mutton)

5. NESTLE - En. Izham & En. Mokhtar of MAGGI (160 disposable bags)

6. All Malaysia Malayalee Association/ AMMA - Mdm. Valsala Rajaram (dried
food items for 50 families & fresh food items for 10 families)

7. Selangor & Federal Territory Malayalee Association/ SFTMA (30 pkts MILO)

8. Ms. Monica Chong & Friends - Segaran, Jerry Chan, Jennifer Chong, Louis,
Noor Denni (80 bags of 5kg rice)

9. Mr. Siva & Friends - cash contributions

10. Mr. Dhaffe, Legal Dept. Nestle - cash contributions

11. Zaidi & Cynthia

12. Mr. Chandran Thambirajah - cash contributions

13. Ms. Joanne Oei - cash contributions

13. Mr. Devan Selvadurai - cash contributions

14. Ms. Jaime Teoh (Milk 123)

15. Mr. & Mrs. Ng - Kim Guan & Chern (Infant Formula)

16. Mr. Patrick (Infant Formula)

17. Sri Narayani Foundation/ SNF - Mr. Maniam, Mr. Wasudevan & Family
(80 loaves bread)

18. Mr. Peter, SEERS Partnership

19. Chef Bob, SEERS Partnership

These pictures were taken on Tuesday, 2nd & Wednesday, 3rd November 2010 - Distribution Days for The Light of Cheer 2010 : A Deepavali Feeding. These pictures speak volumes. ALL of you have touched so many lives. Bringing the Light of Cheer to many, many folks who have so little to look forward to in their lives. Your assistance & contributions have made their Deepavali definitely DIFFERENT!!. Thank You for Making a Difference!!

The Light of Cheer penetrated Kapar

Saturday, 6th November 2010

The Build-up towards Deepavali.

This year, Deepavali, was celebrated on Friday, 5th November 2010. All over the country, our Hindu & Indian friends welcomed this Festival of Light eagerly.

Kapar Folks were no different. They may be poor but they still looked forward to Deepavali. We, at FRIENDS OF KAPAR worked very, very hard to ensure that Deepavali this year, could be celebrated cheerfully by our Families. Many people were involved in this excercise. Current & past families assisted by FRIENDS OF KAPAR were enlisted into The Deepavali Feeding List. As there were allocation for 80 Families, we added more families into the List so that the cheer could be spread around wider and to many more needy and poor families. The potential families were introduced, visited & interviewed before they were asked to come for registration at THE CNC. At The CNC, they were registered and were issued a coupon to collect their food packages on the respective days. Registration went smoothly. Thank You to our Tutors - Mdm. Josephine, Ms. Barni & Ms. Prabha - who helped in the registration excercise.


Preparation towards Deepavali started very, very early. We started the mechanism of preparation & planning as early as in the month of July. Potential & interested Donors were contacted. Meetings & presentations were arranged. Pledges were made. In October, the food items were finalized. By mid-October, orders & purchases for the food items were made.

I really could not have done this excercise without the support of Ms. Norisah A. Rahman aka Liza as she is fondly refered to - a Store Manager with Speed 99 Convenience Store in Cova Square. She helped in the organising of the purchasing & ordering of the food items. This small statured young lady is a gem. She ensured that orders were fulfilled within the stipulated time. Some items were not available even after being ordered from Speed 99 Warehouse. Eventhough she was very, very busy, she took the time to drive with me around ALL Speed 99 Convenience Stores in Kota Damansara and personally purchased the required items, portion by portion until the quota was met! I will be writing to Speed 99 S/B informing them of her extra special services towards FRIENDS OF KAPAR.

By the third week of October all food items in the List were safely purchased and waiting, ready to be packed. 80 fresh chickens were also ordered from CP Chicken Shop, Uptown, Damansara. Instructions were given to ensure that the chicken were deep frozen and ready to be picked up on the respective Distribution Days.They opened especially early - 7:00am for FRIENDS OF KAPAR. Thank You So Much, Ain & Team.

On Sunday, 17th October 2010, FRIENDS OF KAPAR took The Kapar Kidz shopping to buy them a pair of sandals each. Out of the 150 children on our List, 120 children came on that day. They were taken to Pusat Pakaian Ekonomi VICTORIA : 31-33, Jln. Besar, Kapar. As there were so many of them, we had to divide these children into a group of 10 accompanied by 2 Minders at any one time. The children were delighted! Thank you to our Tutors & Volunteers at C3 - for organising the children. Thank you also to Mr. BK Chia for the generous discounts.

On the following Sunday - 24th October 2010, new tee-shirts were distributed. The Kapar Kidz @ The CNC were given priority. Sarees as well as Shalwar Kameez were also given out to the Mommies of Kapar. There were happy faces all around!

On Friday, 22nd October 2010 - we went to The Chow Kit Wet Market and ordered the fresh vegetables. These were to be collected a week later, just prior to the actual Deepavali Feeding Day.


From 25th - 27th October, the dried food items were packed. There were 160 bags of food items and these were distributed to 80 Families. On 31st October, half of these bags were transported to The CNC - which became a Distribution Centre. On that same day too, coupons were distributed to 42 poor & underprivileged families. These families were chosen based on the their very low income as well as income per kapita.

That night - we went to The Chow Kit Wet market to collect the fresh vegetables. We bought 80kg brinjals, 80kg carrots, 80kg potatoes, 80 heads cabbage.

On Monday, 1st November & Tuesday 2nd November, 2010 - the fresh vegetables were packed. Zaidi & Cynthia came to help, after work. In fact, they came on both Monday night as well as on Tuesday night, just to help in the packing of the fesh vegetables and fruits, as these had to be done at the last minute. Thank You, Zaidi & Cynthia - you took the effort to pack even though you were so dead tired after work. I really, really appreciate your assistance.

As there were 80 families - the Deepavali Feeding had to be spread out into 2 days, ie. 40 families on Tuesday, 2nd November & another 40 families on Wednesday, 3rd November 2010. In the morning from 9:30am to 12:30 noon - food packages were distributed to 20 families. After Lunch, the food packages were distributed from The CNC. 21 families came on each of the 2 days. FRIENDS OF KAPAR organised a lunch of very delicious Nasi Lemak & Chicken Rendang for the Donors & Volunteers on that day. Thank You Nasi Lemak Achi. It was yummy!


Each family received 2 bags of dried goods consisting of dhall, 2 packets curry powder,1kg sugar, MILO, fruit cordial, cooking oil, 1 kg flour, a big tin of biscuits, 2 cans sardines, fruit jam, Nescafe, jelly, 1 whole chicken, 2kg lamb, 1 head cabbage, 1 kg carrots, 1 kg brinjal, 1 kg potatoes, fresh juicy apples, 5kg rice. The little children were given tubes of Smarties, the Mommies of Kapar were given a batik sarong each. Some of the old men were given a sarong each. The 5 handicapped children of Kapar were also given a new set of clothing. The babies were provided with milk powder and where necessary a pack of disposable diapers. All in all there were something for everybody!