PENAMPANG: I Link Berhad’s Faith Caring Home, a centre for the mentally ill, is currently looking for more funds from the public, to meet the needs of those who are in desperate need of care.
According to founder Pastor Avis Chong, Faith Caring Home is a centre that is devoted to care for those who suffer psychological, emotional and mental health challenges.
Its objective and activities are focused on healing the patient and at the same time reducing if not eliminating the family’s burden.
“This ministry was started back in 15th December 2008. It has been around for about ten years now. Our first premises was in Taman Judy, Manggatal,” Avis told reporters this during QSR Stores Sdn Bhd’s visit to the centre yesterday.
A few years after their establishment, Avis and her team were approached by a former developer. The latter told Avis that he was deeply moved by the initiative and thus he proceeded to sponsor a piece of his own land and a house for the centre.
While 23 of its female students have moved to the new premises, which is situated at Kg Limbanak, the remaining eight other male students are still living in their old premises at Taman Judy.
The new hostel for the male students is currently under construction and it will be situated just beside the female hostel.
According to Avis, the new hostel would cost more than RM2 million and that is why Faith Caring Home is currently seeking for help from the public.
Unfortunately, the response from the public has been quite underwhelming as the centre rarely receives any donation from the public. This is due to the fact that the centre does not get that much publicity.
“Usually we depend on the fees given by the families of the patients. If they can afford then they will pay. Each patient pays a different amount,” Avis said.
Avis had also expressed her hope that the road leading up to Faith Caring Home will be upgraded by the relevant authorities. The current condition of the road is quite bad as most of it covered in gravel.
“The land still belongs to him (the landowner) as it is difficult to transfer titles. As of now, the landowner is still working on the transfer of titles,” Avis said, adding that the entire building was built by the landowner himself.
Avis disclosed that most of teachings in the centre focus on bible studies, counselling and health talks.
Some of the other daily activities conducted in the centre are physical exercises (such as jogging and dancing), morning and evening devotions as well as cooking lessons.
They provide services such as food and lodging, hospital reviews, medication supervision as well as psychological care.
“We also teach these students about character behaviour. Most of them, when they are sick, they get stuck and they do not know how to interact with people.
“We teach everything, from how to sweep the floor, to cleaning and cooking,” Avis added.
When asked how long would a patient recover, Avid said that the time period for recovery is often not fixed.
The types of mental illness that patients suffer here are schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and even those with borderline personality disorder.
“Personality disorder is mainly about problems pertaining to a person’s behaviour and their character.
“As an example, we have a student here who refuses to eat rice that was cooked by someone else. If the rice was prepared by another person, she would never eat it. She wants to cook it by herself,” she said.
During the visit, which was a part of QSR Stores’ Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (CSR), the company had donated RM4,000 to Faith Caring Home.
The purpose of the visit was to bring Chinese New Year joy to the students. They were also treated with Ang Pows and QSR
Stores’ signature KFC chickens.
Present in the event were QSR Stores East Malaysia senior general manager Lo Yu Foh and QSR Stores East Malaysia manager Datin Anna Au-Fernandez.