Shoe box project cheers up children affected by floods
JERANTUT: ‘Contributions from children to children’ — this is the effort of the Pahang Girl Guides Movement to cheer up children affected by the floods in the state through a project called ‘Shoe Box Project’.
The initiative carried out for the past three years had clearly brought cheer to the children placed at the relief centres when they received the ‘ magic box’ containing various items.
It was even more special when the boxes were distributed personally by the Tengku Puan Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah, who is the President of the Pahang Girl Guides Movement, when visiting the flood relief centres in the state for the past several days.
Tunku Aminah told Bernama that each ‘Shoe Box’ distributed contained items such as pencils, colouring book, personal care items, and toys contributed by primary and secondary school students in the state.
“Usually at home, we have shoe boxes which are not used, rather than being neglected and thrown away, we encourage not only the girl guide members but also school students to donate by placing the items in the boxes concerned.
“Actually, even we do not know the items placed in the boxes because the students themselves placed the items directly in the shoe box,” she said.
Tunku Aminah said the shoe boxes contributed would later be gathered at a special place before being distributed to the children at the relief centres set up during the floods.
“Each year, we managed to gather between 2,000 to 3,000 boxes, and since the floods hit Pahang last week, we had distributed more than 700 boxes to the flood relief centres in several districts in the state,” she said.
Personally, Tunku Azizah felt that the project had succeeded in inculcating the spirit of caring and contributing among the students.
Meanwhile, Datin Tan Puang Leng, the individual who was responsible in mooting the idea of the ‘Shoe Box Project’ said, this is a success to the movement when the children showed their happiness when receiving the box.
“Usually at the relief centres, the contributions would be given to their parents while the children only watched the contributions received.
“But through this project, the children also have the opportunity to receive the donations contributed by the children themselves, and they would be able to use the items received such as colour pencils and colouring books to fill up their free time at the relief centres,” she said.
She said it was most touching when in the boxes there were notes or prayers from the giver that the recipient would be blessed with good health and protected from hardship.
“I have personally seen parents wiping their tears when receiving these contributions. This may be ‘small’ to us, but most meaningful to the recipients,” she said.
Tan said the boxes were also distributed to the interior areas with the help of the Malaysian Armed Forces if there were no f loods in that particular year. — Bernama