Fatimah speaking with the Chai family when visiting them at Kampung Segedup yesterday. — Photo by Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: After over a decade of living quietly below the urban poverty line, Chai Min Chiap and Vonica Gaweng and their family will finally see their hardship coming to an end.
Their living condition was brought to the attention of See Hua Group by Hope Place founder Kelvin Wan on Monday, who took foodstuff and reporters to the family’s ramshackle house in the Stapok-Segedup area.
When a team of ministry and agency representatives came a-calling yesterday, they found out that there was more to the story. The family had just moved to their new house, which neighbours helped to build by pooling their resources together.
Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who led the visit, praised the local community for their initiative.
“This is the fruit of the local community. They collected donations and asked someone to build the house. They (the family) just moved in,” she told reporters after visiting the family in their new house.
“This is a very good example of how the local community come together and put up a house. If we work together, the hard things will become easy.”
Construction on the house began three days ago. Builders were still putting together the exterior of the house, but the building was habitable.
The electricity comes from a generator, but water pipes cannot be connected so they will get a 1Malaysia water tank to harvest rainwater.
Fatimah added that the local community have also sourced second-hand furniture for the house.
“They also work so that the children will have transport to go to school. The transportation is covered for two years through donations. They can go to school at SK Stapok.”
The new, nearly-completed house that the local community helped to build by donating funds and pooling their resources together.
The old house that Chai and his family occupied for many years before moving into their new one yesterday.
Hope Place volunteers Kelvin Wan (back, second right) and Andrew Chong (back, right), together with Vonica (second left) and her children after handing over the goods.
(Clockwise from front) Joo Chan, 5, Luan Chai, 11 and Xiao Yan, 8, at the front door of the house they bade farewell to.
Joo Chan rewards himself with a bottle of water after helping Wan and his siblings move boxes and bags of goods from Hope Place into the old house. — Photos by Chimon Upon and Rais Sanusi
She said that one of their main priorities now is to persuade the children to go to school. The oldest son Chai Jew Huat, 9, has a learning disability and is registered as a special needs child (OKU). The oldest daughter Luan Chai, 11, should be in primary five but can barely read.
Fatimah said a counsellor will be engaged to speak to the children to see if there are any problems, as well as a doctor to diagnose if there are any other learning disabilities.
“This is something we emphasise on. If no education, it will always be hard. Their mother didn’t have an opportunity for an education, but now her children do.”
The other issue Fatimah said needed attention was the parents.
“The father Chai is only a labourer and does not work every day so the income is not regular. The district office will interview and register them under eKasih so they can stand a chance to be selected for 1Azam programme,” she said.
According to Vonica, her husband works at a cement factory in Sg Moyan, earning RM28 a day, and if he fails to get a bus he would not be able to go to work.
“We will also recommend that Society for Kuching Urban Poor (SKUP) help in giving training to the mother Vonica. The small child can be placed in the SKUP nursery while she gets trained in whatever she is interested in,” said Fatimah.
At this point during the press conference, Fatimah turned to Vonica and said: “Don’t say that you can’t. Of course you can! This is a chance. Take it. Be an example to your children. Although you can’t read or write, you can still work for additional income.”
The Chai family is a classic of urban poverty caused by moving from the rural areas only to find themselves in squatter areas and barely scrapping by.
“With very little skills or education, it’s very hard. Often the children will drop out of school. They can’t even open a bank account because they don’t know how. In cases like this, we have to walk the extra mile. Can’t wait for them to come to us.”
Welfare is everyone’s responsibility, she added.
“It’s not just about financial assistance. It’s a lot of other things – house, water, electricity, education, income generating skills. These are the fundamentals. We want to wean them off from financial assistance from the government, and have them able to generate income through skills from training.”