New NGO from KK seeks guidance from Hope Place Kuching

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Chai (standing, fifth left) hands over basic food items to elderly widow Sariah Bayai, witnessed by Wan (standing second right) and other volunteers.

KUCHING: A group of young adults from Kota Kinabalu recently approached Hope Place Kuching for advice and guidance in their newly-formed non-profit non-governmental organisation (NGO) known as ‘Arms of Hope Sabah’.

This group of friends got to know about Hope Place via social media and they soon learnt about Hope Place’s mission and aim.

Arms of Hope Sabah was registered as an NGO in Kota Kinabalu in early April this year.

Their lack of knowledge and experience led them to contact Hope Place’s founder Kelvin Wan to help them in their initial stage.

Wan went to Kota Kinabalu last week to conduct a three-day intensive training programme with them.

As Arms of Hope’s mission was similar to that of Hope Place, the group felt that they needed more input and inspiration from the man who started it all.

The training consisted of teaching the team the skills of interviewing people and how to ration different food items to families.

The team also got the chance to visit and introduce themselves to Sabah Welfare Department.

The training sessions ended with Arms of Hope president Kelvin Chai Swei Ferng presenting a token of appreciation to Wan.

“I am proud to see more and more young people have the heart and passion in community work and reaching out to the needy. I am overjoyed and at the same time, humbled that Hope Place is able to inspire people to be actively involved in their local communities,” said Wan.

According to Wan, the Hope Place team is now ready and prepared to help and share their knowledge as well as expertise to start-up organisations, as it approaches its sixth anniversary.

Since 2016, Hope Place has opened its doors for internship to local colleges and universities in Kuching, courses pertaining to social work studies and also presentation of talks at schools, educating young minds.

Within that time, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) too has been consistently sending students from its social work studies programme to do fieldwork with Hope Place as part of their syllabus.

In the long run, Hope Place aims to be the platform to empower the underprivileged community and also to promote change in society.

For more information, Hope Place can be reached at 082-505 987.

Opening hours are from 8.30am to 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays; and 8.45am to noon on Saturdays.

Currently, Hope place support more than 190 needy families.

Should the public be interested to make donations, they can make bank transfer made payable to ‘Persatuan Kebajikan Harapan Kuching’ via Maybank account number 5112-8900-1160.