Three sisters living in filth get aid
Siblings have moved to a children’s home
KUANTAN: Three sisters dwelling in extreme squalor have been sent to a children’s home until their guardian can provide a better living environment for them.
The girls, aged 12, 10 and nine, had been living with their uncle in a garbage-strewn upper level of a shophouse on Lorong Seri Damai Perdana 57 here.
The filthy condition was further compounded by the presence of 13 dogs, a civet, turtle and a bird the girls had been rearing.
Layers of animal waste were found on the floor, covering the whole space in a noxious miasma (bad stench).
SJK (C) Taman Tas parent-teacher association chairman Yeoh Kok Bin said the exact whereabouts of the girls’ mother was unknown as she had not been home for three years, while the father was working in Kuala Rompin, Pahang.
“The father rarely returns home and it is difficult to reach him. The uncle is out the whole day and only comes back at night.
“They eat instant noodles in the afternoon and in the evening, the eldest sister cooks, or they eat what their uncle brings home,” he said yesterday.
Yeoh said the girls, who are of mixed Orang Asli-Chinese descent, seldom attend school, and when asked, would give excuses such as oversleeping. As a result, they are lagging in their studies.
The school’s headmistress had visited them, and even gave them mattresses and pillows last month, but these had all been chewed up by the dogs.
Yeoh said the school administration had contacted the girls’ uncle numerous times to discuss their situation, but he always avoids meeting them.
Teruntum assemblyman Sim Chon Siang said although the girls were not in his constituency, the matter required immediate attention as they must not be allowed to continue living in such a situation.
Sim got the Welfare Department to intervene yesterday, and after talking to the girls and their uncle, he agreed to send the three to the Rapha Children’s Home as a temporary arrangement.
“The uncle will be given time to clean up their living place and provide a suitable bedroom, or find a new home,” Sim said.