Ministry helps fix senior citizen’s leaky roof
SIBU: Sixty-two-year- old Kong Ah Hoi can now sleep tight in Sungai Telian, Durin without any worry about the roof of his dilapidated house leaking.
The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development repaired his house recently after his former classmate, Kapitan Kong Foh Siew, conveyed his predicament to the authority.
Ah Hoi said he had noted his neighbour, who is also a former classmate, is staying in a nice house constructed for him by the government.
“I too wanted to have such a house when I saw Yap Siak Kim, 66, having one,” Ah Hoi recalled.
“My house had a leaking roof for many years. So I asked the Kapitan to help me. I brought him to see my house to see whether he could help me to benefit from the housing aid programme that Yap had benefitted from,” he said.
Foh Siew said he was shocked when he saw Ah Hoi’s house in such a deplorable condition.
“From the outside, the house looked okay. The interior was terrible,” Foh Siew said, adding that he then helped Ah Hoi to apply for the benefit under the housing aid programme.
Following his application, some officers from the District Office came to see the house, and proposed that the house be repaired instead of building a new one, saying the problem was due to leaking.
Ah Hoi agreed. His house was repaired over five days.
According to him, the house has existed for about 70 years.
He said he could not repair the leaking roof by himself as he had been incapacitated by a stroke over 10 years ago.
“I was also financially constrained,” he pointed out.
Ah Hoi said he had to walk with the aid of a stick since the stroke.
“However, I am able to go about my daily routine of household chores, cooking, tending my small vegetable farm, rearing chickens and taking care of my aged mother.
His 81-year- old mother was unable to take care of herself.
The mother and son are living on the monthly RM300 aid from the Welfare Department.
His wife is staying with his son who is a lorry driver in Bintulu.
Ah Hoi’s daughter has married and is staying in town.
She visits her occasionally.
“Sometimes, my children would give me some pocket father money. Not much, but at least it is something,” he said.
Ah Hoi is not about to leave his house and stay with relatives in town.
He reasoned: “This is my grandfather’s house, I cannot leave just like that.”
Yap and Ah Hoi are among the few Cantonese who have remained at the Cantonese village in Sungai Telian.