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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Making Waves in Ijok.....

Above: Rahimah a sincle mother with school going children & a grown up child. Rahimah is a very sickly woman. Her income comes from selling Kangkung shools which she gathers from the drain infront of her kampung.....

The 2nd Ijok Feeding Program was carried out on Wed, 28/ 3/ 2012. It was with trepidation when we set out to Ijok at 7 am. on that wet, slushy, rainy Wednesday morning, with The Monster laden with food items.

We brought with us food parcels containing – wheat flour, meehoon, sugar, salt, oil, sardines, tea & bread. These were ALL contributed by Adeline Chew. On top of that we also brought Maggi Mee & MILO Canned Drinks – donated by Nestle (M) Sdn. Bhd. Milk Powder by SNF. Rice was contributed by Tuan Haji Baharom – the Parit Mahang Village Head.

Hjh. Marni – a dear old friend acted as the Secondary Contact Pax – as she is familiar with the area. We drove from Ijok to Pasir Tuntong – which was a good 30 mins. drive. We met Rahimah a single mother with young children. (check out her story)

Above: This lady has a mentally challenged 23 year old son. He is not able to take care of himself. She waits on him hand & foot...

Above: Of all the women that we met, Fatin (partly photographed ) was the saddest story of all. She is only 23 years old. Possess quite a beauty but married to a man who is the village trouble maker. He is currently serving a 1 year prison sentence leaving her with 3 very, very young children. One of the children is a mentally challenged  & is not able to drink OR eat solid food. Fatin has NO income. How she survives everyday is anybody's question....
The Village Headman – Tuan Haji Baharom,  is our Primary Contact Pax in Parit Mahang. He took us into small oil palm estates to deliver the food parcels. He took us to places which we would never be able to find had we been on our own. To that we are very grateful to him.
This time around, Tuan Haji took us to visit families whom we have never met before. Practically ALL of them were new to us. ALL the families were mostly single mothers struggling to take care of their young children. From now on, every Feeding Program will have a new set of 20 families, as that it will prevent dependency on Project MADE. 

What we saw at Ijok, this time around is very sad – as ALL the families were mostly single mothers struggling to take care of their young children. Check out their pix & stories above & below……
Above: This very young woman is already a widow at such a tender age. Her husband died leaving her with 3 young children. Her 2nd child who is 8 yrs old is dependent on a breathing apparatus. She is hooked to it and hence finds it difficult to attend school. She has never been in school. However, when we came she JUST started her 1st day at school!!
Above: A forlon looking woman........
As the Ijok Feeding Program is now more stable – we have decided to gather some personal data base on each of our Feeding Family. It is a bit time consuming but it is definitely worth it. Hjh. Marni diligently took down details of each & every family. Check out Hjh. Marni in action from the pix below:
Above: Hjh. Marni busy doing her "data - collection" exercises.....what would I do without her??

Above a family struggling to survive.....

Above: Another young widow - this time with 5 school -going children a some small tots at home. She has NO income.....
Above: A family down on its luck... at least he is actively looking for a job!

Above: what does the future hold for this young child?



The above is only some of the families that I could capture with my camera……

Thank you Adeline Chew for making a difference. Your food contribution ensures that they can eat a meal comfortably at least for the next few days…..

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