Community child care support programme at PPR – Zuraida
KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry will introduce a community child care support programme at the People's Housing Project (PPR), says its Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She said the programme that would encourage stay-at-home mothers in PPR to work together to provide assistance in looking after the young children in the neighbourhood, to be included in the new national housing policy that would be announced later this month.
“We find that parents living in the PPR projects are unable to send their children to nurseries or day care centres, so through this programme there will be stay-at-home mothers who will volunteer to look after the neighbours' young children when their parents are at work.
She added that the programme could be implement by blocks or by floors, depending on the requirements as the stay-at-home mothers who were free on that particular day could look after the young children for three to four hours while others who were free the next day could do the same thing.
She said this to reporters after visiting the family of four-yearold Siti Nur Nadhirah Khairul Anuar, who died tragically after falling from her family unit's balcony on the 17th floor, Block A, PPR Kota Damansara on Thursday morning.
She said her ministry would also looking into providing incentives to stay-at-home mothers who provided assistance in looking after the neighbours' young children while the parents away at work.
Meanwhile, Zuraida said during the visit she was informed by the girl's father, Khairul Anuar Kusnan, 45, that the family wished to continue staying in the unit despite being offered to relocate to another one.
“I have also asked for his (Khairul Anuar) consent for the residents' associations here to carry out a ‘gotong-royong' and to help repair his unit,” she said.
In the 7am incident, the victim who was feeling unwell, believed to have climbed a plastic chair before she fell over the balcony railing and the incident occurred when the parents were away working.