Today, Saturday, October 28, 2006 (Shawal 5, 1427 Hijrah), we received our 29th and 30th ‘princes’ which marks the end of our search and the beginning of our journey to care for 30 children who are poor and orphaned in the hope that our efforts will raise them as good Muslims and at the same time help them, their siblings and families out of the circle of poverty, insha-Allah.
We pray Allah bless the children and their family members and guide them to become good Muslims and be amongst those people who love the Rasul s.a.w and fear Allah. We pray Allah bless and protect Rumah Aman, the children, the staff and guide us in our endeavor and make things easy for us and make us do correct actions.
We pray Allah help us to raise the children to have the best adab, good behaviour, correct actions and clarity of mind. We pray Allah make easy for us to raise funds either in kind or in financial terms and, to those who assist us in this endeavor to be generously rewarded for their noble deeds and intentions and may the people around us benefit by Your generosity. Success is by Allah.
THE SEARCH
On January 30, 2005 (Zulhijjah 19, 1426H) the Management informed the staff of three that Rumah Aman will care for 30 children and the criteria for the residents of Rumah Aman are :
a)Orphans (yatim piatu – both parents have passed away);
b)Boys;
c)Destitute or Poor;
d)Four years old.
The staff was told that some quarters thought that this was near impossible not because the number of orphans in that age bracket was scarce but many thought no guardian would part with children of that age group and allow strangers to care for them. Although the odds were against us, we stood our ground and tried our best to fulfill the given criteria.
We were not able to work from the office since the building was still undergoing upgrading, renovation works and refurbishing, therefore we took the obvious modus operandi that is to tell those we knew or came in contact with, about the criteria and hoped that by word of mouth, there would be some kind of response favourable to us.
Over a period of time, many who were interested in our work volunteered to help through their personal contacts to help us find the children.
We also did not discount getting some children who fit the criteria from the recently tsunami hit Acheh and sure enough, there were people who heard about us volunteered to find and connect us with the authorities in Acheh, more so when there were talks alleging that some children were ‘taken’ out from Indonesia to some parts in the United States of America.
Some ustaz who claimed to have contacts in Acheh also offered their assistance in getting the children here, more so after learning Rumah Aman was new in Shah Alam.
Our hopes of getting children from Acheh, was however, dashed. In response to the public outcry on the alleged incident, the Indonesian government issued a decree forbidding any children from Acheh to be taken out under any circumstances, even under the grounds of humanitarian relief. All our efforts to get children from Acheh came to a halt.
A month had past. We got some feed backs here and there but there was nothing concrete except for one guardian who pledged to send his nephew who is five years old and had recently lost both his parents. That lifted our spirits and felt that the `near impossible’ is possible.
In early March, the management met and was briefed about the progress we made. They were told that we had many inquiries but most of them – mothers especially – wanted to send their already problematic sons, either they were playing truant at school, started smoking or have been in company of bad hats. There was even a lady who called and wanted to pay us to take her son under our wings. It turned out he was about 25 years old and was addicted to drugs.
As soon as the telephone line got connected, we sat about searching for telephone and facsimile numbers of the welfare departments, the Islamic religious departments, the zakat collection centres and other welfare homes and orphanages to find leads as to where can we find these children.
After collecting enough information, we sent letters to all 14 states’ Islamic religious departments, Islamic religious councils and state welfare departments in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak requesting their assistance to help us in our search.
The Kelantan, Trengganu and Pahang state religious departments informed us that they do not keep a yatim list in their respective states but they sent us addresses, telephone numbers and facsimile numbers of the district suraus and mosque , if we care to contact them and ask for information on the yatims in each kariah (area).
We also sent out posters regarding our search to selected mosques in Terengganu, Pahang and Kelantan. We were unable to send to the mosques in the other states because their addresses were not available.
To make ourselves known to a wider audience, we issued press releases in March 2005 to the English and Bahasa Melayu, national language newspapers, television stations and radio stations. Fortunately or unfortunately, the press release was only published in national language Kosmo! Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian newspapers but none in the English Language newspapers.
We were also featured in the magazine Mingguan Wanita besides announcements about our search made through the radio stations.
Rumah Aman also dispatched a young ustaz , a graduate from University al-Azhar, Egypt who was supposed to teach Islamic Religious Knowledge to the children, back to his kampung (village) in the state of Kedah to search for potential children but after a month of searching and meeting relevant authorities and community leaders, his search came to naught.
Except for the three states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Pahang, we did not receive any response from the other state Islamic religious departments or any Islamic religious councils. We learned later through telephone calls that none of these authorities had a list of yatim with them but they do have a list for the poor to whom they distribute zakat every year. The same goes for the state welfare departments who had a list of people receiving monthly sustenance from them.
However, we were fortunate that the Baitulmal under the Islamic Religious Council of Selangor (MAIS), the state where we are operating in, had a yatim list that they had recently compiled through their district nazirs and amils. It had been MAIS practice to distribute money and gifts to the yatims in the month of Ramadhan in conjunction with Eid ul-Fitr celebrations every year.
In April 2005, we reported to the Management that we will receive one potential orphan in the age category specified earlier but we suggested that it is better if we reviewed the admission category. The Management agreed and with that we amended the criteria to :
a)Orphans (yatim piatu – both parents have passed away)
b)Yatim (father has passed away)
c)Boys
d)Destitue or Poor
e)Aged between three to six years old
We started our search on May 18, 2005 by physically going out. We visited each house listed with orphans which fits our criteria. We interviewed their guardians to find out whether they are poor and eligible to receive zakat.
Our adjourned our search on July 23, 2005 as we need to hire teachers and other supporting staff. That done, on June 12, 2005 Rumah Aman received its first ‘three princes’ to the castle. Two of them were five years old and the other was six years old.
Immediately after the admission of the three boys, we continued our search and adjourned again in August to prepare for the official launching of Rumah Aman on the October 1, 2005. During the launching we had ten boys with us. They were sent to us by their guardians in batches. Four of them were four year olds, three were five year olds and three were six year olds.
We did not continue our search until after Eid ul Fitr which was in the middle of October. Our search started again in November 2005 until December. By the end of that year we had 15 boys ranging from the age of four years to six years old.
In 2006, five of our boys started schooling in public school. Some of them were able to read, write and count because they had spent time in Rumah Aman since June 2005 but there were others who were not as fortunate, because they came in later but presently, they are progressing well in their lessons.
We started our search again in February 2006 which lasted until the May 10, 2006. Up till then, we had 25 boys under our care. Then, unexpectedly, three guardians decided to withdraw their consent and took back their children. We were then down with 22 boys.
We started going out again on July 20, 2006. This search ended on September 9, 2006 and during this search we received a call from a nurse in Teluk Intan, an old town in the state of Perak just off the border of the state of Selangor.
She was God sent. Being a nurse in a small town who lives among the poor, she is aware of the sufferings of the families who did not get enough support and assistance from the government or from the community where they lived in. High on her agenda is to help the children from these poor families to attend school because only education will help them get out of the poverty cycle.
Staff Nurse Sabariah Shamsuddin or ‘Missy’ to the patients under her care truly is a nurse with a heart but she also realised that she too has her limitations. Upon meeting her in Teluk Inntan, she thanked us for being kind to help her out but we in return said that we are thankful that she contacted us.
We interviewed six families that night, with Missy as our guide. One of them is a guardian of a yatim while the other five are poor families who are not able to fend for themselves as they have many children, as many as 12 ranging from the age of three to 20 years old. The mothers are housewives and the husbands hold menial jobs.
It took us until about 11.00 pm that day to finish our interviews and visit their houses. We slept at the Missy’s house and returned to Rumah Aman the next day with three boys, one yatim aged five and two brothers aged three and five years old.
Their mothers followed us back and we gave them a tour of Rumah Aman and showed them the facilities provided. Satisfied, the mothers left the children in Rumah Aman and headed for home the same evening with the nurse.
Our journey took us to approximately 200 houses in search of the ‘princes’ of Rumah Aman. Our search took us to remote areas where in certain areas the tarmac road suddenly disappears into a trail that stopped at the fringe of the jungle.
Some trips took us well into the night especially when our search took us to the Felda (Federal Development Authority) settlers in Kuala Kubu Baru and Hulu Selangor. During the trip to Kuala Selangor we had to stay overnight to enable us to continue our search the next morning.
Many a time we got lost and had to stop and asked for directions as most houses in the list that we had did not have complete address especially in the country side where houses are not numbered and the road that leads to them are only known by the villagers.
Once we were going in circles trying to trace an address and there was no one to ask for directions. After more than an hour driving and searching under the scorching sun, we met someone driving home and took the opportunity to enquire.
We told him that we could not find the road. The roads were given names according to numbers and the roads were numbered in sequence. So, we thought it would be easy but strangely enough the one we were looking for somehow was no where to be found.
The man grinned at us and told us that it was easier for him to lead us the way. So we followed his car and we had to go through a trail road into the jungle and there were scenic clearings where the land had been farmed.
To our amazement, we saw vegetables and herbal gardens smack in the jungle! At the end of the trail we came back to ‘civilisation’ where suddenly we saw again a tarred main road. Across the main road we went through another trail road through some bushes and at the end of it was the house we were looking for.
The bizarre trip was then explained by the helpful man. He said the road somehow got ‘lost’ because of development. In fact the area used to be one village but then was divided into two.
To get lost in the village or country side is actually not as bad as to get lost in the towns and housing estates of Gombak and Ampang in the district of Hulu Selangor. One way streets, bad road signs and directions added to the problem and the worst is when the road you are looking for is the one where its sign has dropped off.
Our search in towns and housing estates that took us to low cost flats was also memorable.
Probably it’s just our misfortune that most of the flats we were looking for are always the one at the topmost floor. These flats are only four storeys high that do not provide lifts! After getting lost for hours in trying to search for the flat, walking up four storey high building was no longer easy.
To top it all up, the family we were searching for has moved out or the mother is out working or visiting! The feelings we had was firstly of exasperation, frustration and sadness but when we encountered similar situations later, it all looked very comical.
Sometimes Allah made it easy for us. We were searching for a house but found ourselves getting lost in a housing area and it was raining heavily. We then stopped to ask an elderly man who was living alone. Lo and behold!, the boy we were searching for is his own grandson! Apparently, the boy and his mother had moved to another housing estate nearby.
We also got to drive through winding roads of steep hills where all you can see on both sides of the road, greenery of what is left of the tropical forest, though still thick with foliage, is no longer the forest it used to be.
We also travelled into the Felda settlers’ homes in Kuala Kubu Baru, where most of its residents are smallholders of 10 acres of palm oil trees which are now over 15 years old and not productive anymore.
On one occasion, we drove on trail roads made of red earth and met the mandur (supervisor) of the estate who is a Hindu of Indian origin. He spoke fluent Malay language like a typical Malay man. He helped show us directions to the house we wanted to look for.
Our search also took us to the coastal roads of Kuala Langat where coconut trees swayed with the wind, and to Hulu Langat where running parallel to the road is the crystal clear running water of the Langat River which gave us a calming effect during our journey there.
Surely we will not forget the scenic and picturesque view of Kuala Selangor. Though our search there was futile (none of the guardians agreed to send their children) but the heart is being consoled by the lazy flow of the many irrigation canals, laced with white water lilies, feeding acres of green paddy fields and the joy of seeing egrets fly home against the backdrop of the golden evening sun.
We always looked forward to the one ringgit mango juice that not only quenched our thirst but also comforted us after the families rejected Rumah Aman’s offer.
There was a time, when we wanted to wear out our tiredness, we waded in the canal to pull out an aquatic plant- the yellow bur head or sawah-lettuce whose leaf and shoots are edible. Now, every time we look out from our house kitchen window, we see it growing with its yellow flower but then again not as well as it was in its natural habitat.
Sometimes we stop to reflect on certain events that we went through, moreover those involving the poor families, especially in their attitude and their view on the life they lead.
We met a few guardians who are poor but it seems the poorer they are, the harder for them to let go their children and accept Rumah Aman’s offer.
There was an occasion where a lady who lived with her elderly mother was looking after her three nephews who had lost their father a few years ago. She doesn’t hold a permanent job, therefore she is dependant on her other siblings who are already married and have families of their own, to pay the house rent, food and daily expenses when they are able.
When we told her that two of her nephews are eligible to enroll into Rumah Aman, she said “ We rather die starving together than live apart from each other ”.
Then, there was the widow with five sons. Her eldest son had just started working with one of the government agencies but the others were already dropping out of school.
When we told her that her youngest child is eligible to stay at Rumah Aman, she agreed to send him. However, the very next morning, her eldest son called and said that their family had changed their mind and would not be sending his youngest brother to us after all.
Or, consider the view of this man that lives in a government housing project for the poor called PPRT – Housing Project for the Hardcore Poor. He has his own family and works as a fisherman. He came to find out why we were at his sister in-law’s house, another home under PPRT that is situated besides his house. When we told him of our intentions, his face changed.
When the headman who was with us advised him that it was a good opportunity for the boy, moreover, other youngsters who had left the village are doing better and after we explained the role of Rumah Aman, our objectives and the facilities we provide, he said : “ No, God does not make a man poor ”.
Or, the circumstances that made a widow withdrew her youngest son who lived in Rumah Aman after a few months. She told us that her former husband had promised to give her and their eight children maintenance if she withdrew their youngest son from the orphanage.
Although we advised her against it, she did it anyway because of her belief in her former husband. Later we heard that the promise was unfulfilled and we did not have any more vacancy to offer to the child.
Or, the way PPRT house was built and the facilities provided. In most PPRT houses in Perak and Selangor which we visited, had two bedrooms and the roof were made of zinc without ceilings.
We were told that to install ceilings, one would need an additional RM800.00. To expect these hardcore poor to install it on their own is a fantasy. Their biggest concern in their daily survival is to find enough food to feed themselves.
To have a zinc roof in a tropical country like Malaysia is like having to live in an oven. The children who will not get use to it will spend more time outside the house rather than indoors and this will cause them to loose interest in their studies unless they themselves are determined to study hard or they have parents who are strict and firm and have a vision for their children. How many among the hardcore poor will think that way?
We also saw a PPRT house which has a septic tank right in front of its door step. How would you like to have a septic tank in front of you door step?
Sometimes, we think our society is a society who does not ‘walk the talk’ be it from the policy makers to the implementers to the local community. The local community moreover gives little support or no support at all. The talk is that they are caring but in fact they are in ignorant and presumptuous.
Like, a lady in a village whom we met, who thought her neighbour, who we were looking for, is doing fine just because she has a car left by her deceased husband and does small time trading by gathering bread fruits, vegetables and mangoes which is then taken by a wholesaler to be sold at a night market in the city.
When we interviewed the widow, we came to know that she and her family of five eat once a day, that is in the evenings. They only have black tea in the morning and have to skip lunch. This has been going on since her husband passed away.
Today, all those experiences are still fresh in our minds. The search for the boys has reminded us to be grateful to Allah every time I have a meal and all the other comforts we have.
Today, all those experiences act as a reminder for us that there are still people out there that are not so fortunate to even get a meal once a day. Today, all those experiences remind us not to waste food, not to spend extravagantly, because 200 ringgit could mean a month’s income for a family of eight.
Today, we are weary that we have been blessed and how fortunate our lives has been but at the same time we are saddened by the fact there are many more who are waiting for the assistance that they truly deserve.
We hope this awareness will make our resolution stronger to look after these children whom we have taken upon ourselves to care for with the grace of Allah, in the best way we can.
We pray Allah give us the patience, perseverance and the knowledge to fulfill this amanah.
La ghaliba lilah. Success is with Allah.
