Date: 3 December 2009

For the attention of YB Elizabeth Wong

Re: Feedback on the micro issue of Gnanam and family

2 December 2009

- For the week ending 5/12/2009 (Saturday), tomorrow will be the last day of work for SMK Seri Kota’s administration staff as they prepare to break off for holidays this month until school reopens in the new year.

- As expected the boy needed a bit of “pushing” to get him to request for a copy of the School Leaving Certificate, the original of which was misplaced by him sometime in 2005. Gnanam did called the school today on this matter and his intention was to get it if not for the fact that (which I discovered to be the actual reason behind the delay in procurement) he did not have any money on him to even pay for the bus trip to Melaka, not to mention food for meals. Perhaps he was too shy to mention this, and he did not have anyone to consult. Incidently the mother too does not have any money.

- Gnanam is now working as a sales promoter with a furniture retail outlet in Brem Mall, Kepong (next to Crystal Crown). He earns a monthly salary of RM800.00 from which he gives the net balance after EPF/SOCSO to his mother for house use. It is his new job since the last employment with TGV Cineplex, Jaya jusco Kepong which pays him wages of RM700.00 on fixed hours basis.

- As faced by people like him whereby it is always the vicious circle of insufficient income to take care of personal and family commitments, Gnanam appears to brave the uncertainties of livelihood with certain sacrifices:1) he does not take lunch daily; instead to have some breakfast before leaving the

house for work.2) He walks about 3km from his rented apartment at Taman Fadason, Kepong to

Brem Mall daily and walks the same distance back. (I can vouch for this.)

- Since June 2009 after the demise of his dad, Sekar and myself took the initiative to mentoring this boy and where possible provided some monetary assistance (cash and in kind) with some donations from other NGIs who took pity to his plight. As some of us too have financial commitments and can only help sparingly, I can see that this family will forever be facing financial difficulties. Of course we NGIs will try to help as best as possible; but is it possible for your good office to channel the right welfare office to help them?

- The mother is not working now; breadwinner role is assumed by Gnanam and maybe the sister who works too.

3 December 2009

- After the return from our trip to Melaka today, at about 9.30pm we (Sekar, myself and Sunny) dropped Gnanam back to his Taman. I had driven off with Sunny to Taman Manjalara for supper when I received an SOS from Gnanam seeking help : He did not have any money as his salary for November 09 will only be paid next week. When he went up to his apartment, he found the mother did not cook the evening meal for the children – reason: no money to buy food. So after a quick supper with Sunny, I ordered take away for them and parted with RM100 cash to Gnanam. His sisters and the young brother were with him and I am sure that they have not eaten. With a look of genuine concern (he and his sisters), he informed that the money will be given to his mother.

- Therefore, how best to tackle the state of affairs for this family? Is there a welfare organization that you can address their problem?

Trip to Melaka

- It was a “mission accomplished” trip – we managed to get the copy of School Leaving Certificate and copy of his PMR results which were good too. Originally we wanted Gnanam to personally make the trip on his own to get whatever documents he had. Apart from the monetary constraints we felt it was required of us to go the last leg and made sure the trip was not wasted : 1) without our persistence to the school staff who were indifferent to the request

and the last-minute request-action perhaps due to the fact that they were about to go off for their school break (understandably) I think Gnanam will have gone there and came back empty-handed. I had to write a letter to the school office seeking their kind assistance and it helped.

2) Even if Gnanam went by bus to Melaka, the distance to his school/welfare home would be so time-consuming and the time wasted in moving around would have meant that he would have returned to KL empty-handed.

3) The above would really jeopardize his chances for A-Levels intake next month as submission of documents to your good office would have been incomplete.

4) There was no record of his sporting achievements as the Co-Curriculum Teacher has left the school already.

5) We has to rushed from Kepong to Melaka at almost 3.00pm as Gnanam did not get management approval for early leave from work. His work functions besides sales promotion was also to handle cash collections and report submissions. We got a bit impatient waiting for him since 1.00pm but he was apologetic to us to let him finish his report submission before making the trip.

This in effect showed a sense of maturity and responsibility in his work and some degree of good attitude.

- Visit to the Welfare Home in Jalan Durian Daun, Melaka where Gnanam spent about 5 years of his childhood (2000 – 2004); during which time he sat for his PMR and SPM examinations and attained commendable results. Again this is a good indicator of his studying attributes. I am confident he will excel in the A-Levels as well. This was an opinion similarly shared by the Timbalan Pengetua of Rumah Budak laki-Laki Tun Abdul Aziz, Puan Zainon Binti Soli during our meeting/discussion at the Home today.

- In fact Puan Zainon gave words of encouragement to Gnanam to excel in his A-Levels and further his academic excellence in law, in the hope that he will return one day to the Home to motivate the students there to follow his example.

- My frank discussion with Gnanam on the reason for his stint in the Home, revealed that the main cause being that the parents had troubled marriage life which often led to outbursts of quarrels and fights much to the concern of the neighbours who called the welfare authorities to look into the wellbeing of the children (6 of them). Gnanam was sent to the Home in Melaka, whilst the rest were sent to a Home in Cheras. Again this is another plus point in Gnanam as a boy who was by compulsion sent to a Home just because the family infrastructure was at the time somewhat unstable. He has no juvenile record whatsoever. This reinforce our belief that this well-mannered boy has a good degree of integrity and maturity.

A handful of NGIs like us would really like to see Gnanam walk the right path in life and achieve academic excellence in the hope of securing a good job and earning capacity and move out of the poverty and impoverished circle. We are relieved that your good office will be able to see to his continued education. A parallel concern is the welfare of Gnanam and his siblings which is currently in an unstable nature and which we hope your good office can also look into.

Thank you YB in anticipation of solutions to the above matters and looking forward to working closely with you, to the best of our ability.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Wong012-3799248