Need To Feed The Need

My passion My Craziness All in One

Feeding the homeless and super poor people in the heart of Kuala Lumpur is crazy or not real for some people. Well... not for me or my team. It started with eight of us down to five and now six of us. Out of six, three stay at home mum that has part time job, or involve with other humanity activities, one is a doctor in Banting, the only guy travels a lot around West of Peninsula Malaysia and the latest addition is a secretary to an oil and gas company.

We feed our street clients on Thursday night where most Muslims are rather do their prayer at the masjid as Thursday night is always more Barakah. We hope and pray what we are doing is not sinful or taboo or anything as that. But of course there are people said that we are doing what Christians are doing. A soup kitchen like the one in the USA. Honestly, I do not find anything wrong to follow them in that sense. Feeding the need. What is so wrong about that? Just because they are not orphans?

Another thing that I had to listen is "Are they handicapped? Can't they work?"

Who said they are not working? Most of them are working. But with the pay that they are getting, they can't afford to rent a house and travel from their house to their work place which mostly in the city. Even after our government put up a guideline of minimum pay. It is not enough! Some of them are with small kids growing up. Some has handicapped children that they need to stay near Hospital Kuala Lumpur for their weekly treatment. Staying in Bangi, Cheras even Sentul is not an option. Cost! Cost! Cost! Transportation cost, rental, and just to live is all about cost. Which they can't take it for granted. So... they end up on the street. Renting a room whenever is possible or staying at the shelters around Kuala Lumpur. That is the best option that they could think of.

Their fault? Is it?They chose to be homeless because it is easier, every night there's already other NGOs besides us that feed them for free? Maybe. Free of debt? Not sure. They might have a lot of debts and that is how they end up on the street. Crazy? We have seen a few. Druggies? Of course. Ex convicts? For sure. Need to stay away from them? Not to me or any of my team members. Their kids are like mine? Of course not. I am a mother first to my own children but the street children deserve to taste partly what my kids are enjoying.

We are getting more responses from anywhere and everywhere. Thank you very much for the support. Your support is very much appreciated. We are tired of cooking ourselves every week. Anyone that is willing to sponsor for the whole 300 people? We are more than willing to accept. Why? We do need the break. We start by going to get the raw stuff in Sungai Buluh as they sell in bulk on Tuesdays, my other team members will come to my house that night to pick up whatever they have selected to do. Such as cutting the onions, cleaning the potatoes, cutting the carrots, garlic, or even preparing the chicken as cutting and marinating the birds. The three stay at home mum will get together either at Sinaran TTDI multipurpose hall as there are a few BBQ pits there for us to cook or at Bayan Indah with a more proper kitchen for us to cook for 300 of our street clients. That means a few night before, one of us must be cutting 10kgs of carrots, cutting around 5 kgs of onions or more, many many cloves of garlic, and chicken...our favourite at least 40 birds of chicken that we have to wash and store. Crazy enough?

There are always some contributors that send some stuff  to our house as their contribution. Either the ingredient of the week that we shout out at our group page in Facebook. or just something that cross their mind and they feel like giving to us. Not forgetting people trying to dump anything and everything to us just because they do not want those things their house anymore. Because of that, our house do not look like a house any longer. More like a warehouse. But we are still here...doing this every week. Crazy enough?

We are praying that we, the whole team will stay strong. It is not an easy task. Support from our family is really appreciated. Our husband's backing us is just beautiful. what more can we ask for? To me, I can only count my blessings, over and over again.

Thank you Allah for this beautiful experience.