‘Abang Botak’ offers free rides to S’kan hospital

0

Yunizam offers free rides to the hospital for locals with his Perodua Kelisa car.

SANDAKAN: Yunizam Yusop, 30, is not a celebrity nor is he a politician, but he is known by the locals for having a ‘big heart’.

Better well known as ‘Abang Botak’ (bald brother), Yunizam has been ‘feeding’ the homeless for the past three years and his charity work does not stop there.

Three years ago, Yunizam organised a team of volunteers to distribute food to the homeless in the middle of the night every Saturday. He called his team Projek Kebajikan Sandakan (Sandakan Welfare Project).

Although not officially registered, Yunizam believes that his efforts and pure intention could initiate a movement among the locals, especially the youths, to join him in shedding light on those in need here.

Yunizam and his team collecting rubbish in town.

His efforts have since paid off.

Yunizam, who runs a ‘mengaji’ of ‘religious learning’ class for children, now has about 70 active followers who would donate and on some days follow him to distribute packs of food that they prepared to the homeless around Sandakan. They distribute around 30 to 50 packs of food to the homeless weekly and basic hygiene and self-care

Yunizam (left) buying diapers to be donated to those in need.

tools monthly.

“Nobody deserves to be hungry,” he said.

His charitable acts continue, when early last year, Yunizam started to utilise his own vehicle, a Perodua Kelisa, to provide free rides to the hospital for those without transportation daily.

He has even put up a sticker which reads ‘Kereta Percuma Ke Hospital’ (free ride to the hospital) on his car, with his phone number.

Yunizam has also given away countless cans of infant formula milk, diapers and rice for free to families with babies who could not afford to feed their children.

This Hari Raya Aidilifitri, Yunizam and 15 of his team members distributed Raya cookies to the homeless. However, this time, after they have completed their distribution, they saw tons of rubbish around town and decided to pick them up before heading home.

“We managed to collect more than 20 big bags of trash we found on the floor around town, particularly near the bus stops. We plan to continue doing this, and I hope that the locals will have the awareness to keep our town clean. It is very sad to see our town flooded with rubbish,” he lamented.

Yunizam, who is a father of three, often shares his efforts on his Facebook page, which has been receiving a lot of attention from the locals.