Single mum, kids receive much needed aid from Hope Place
KUCHING: Hope Place Kuching recently handed over food aid and other forms of assistance to a single mother and her three children living in hardship.
Its founder Kelvin Wan said Chai Mui Joon, 40, is unemployed and lives in a run- down singlestorey house in Siburan with her children, aged six to 11.
“She is a shy woman who endured years of domestic abuse in the past. She takes care of her children full-time and walks them to school every day.
“They live in their own home, but it is in very poor condition. The walls have no plastering and when it rains, water seeps into the house and makes everything wet,” he said in a publicity release yesterday.
Due to financial difficulties, the family’s house has no water and electricity, and that Chai fetches water from her brother’s house next door and stores it in a plastic barrel.
“They are unable to afford to build a bathroom with a proper toilet; instead they make do with putting up a piece of canvas in one corner at the back of their house to serve as a makeshift bathroom,” added Wan.
According to him, Chai and her children sleep in a small bedroom on a broken bed. The house only has several pieces of furniture and the family’s clothing are lumped in one corner.
“With the aid from the Welfare Department and also her brother, Chai is coping with whatever little she has and has never complained. However, she does hope her family’s living condition can improve in future.”