Date: 3 December 2009

For the attention of YB Elizabeth Wong

Re: Feedback on the micro issue of Gnanam and family

2 December 2009

- For the week ending 5/12/2009 (Saturday), tomorrow will be the last day of work
for SMK Seri Kota’s administration staff as they prepare to break off for holidays
this month until school reopens in the new year.

- As expected the boy needed a bit of “pushing” to get him to request for a copy of
the School Leaving Certificate, the original of which was misplaced by him
sometime in 2005. Gnanam did called the school today on this matter and his
intention was to get it if not for the fact that (which I discovered to be the actual
reason behind the delay in procurement) he did not have any money on him to
even pay for the bus trip to Melaka, not to mention food for meals. Perhaps he
was too shy to mention this, and he did not have anyone to consult. Incidently the
mother too does not have any money.

- Gnanam is now working as a sales promoter with a furniture retail outlet in Brem
Mall, Kepong (next to Crystal Crown). He earns a monthly salary of RM800.00
from which he gives the net balance after EPF/SOCSO to his mother for house
use. It is his new job since the last employment with TGV Cineplex, Jaya jusco
Kepong which pays him wages of RM700.00 on fixed hours basis.

- As faced by people like him whereby it is always the vicious circle of insufficient
income to take care of personal and family commitments, Gnanam appears to
brave the uncertainties of livelihood with certain sacrifices:
1) he does not take lunch daily; instead to have some breakfast before leaving the
house for work.
2) He walks about 3km from his rented apartment at Taman Fadason, Kepong to
Brem Mall daily and walks the same distance back. (I can vouch for this.)

- Since June 2009 after the demise of his dad, Sekar and myself took the initiative
to mentoring this boy and where possible provided some monetary assistance
(cash and in kind) with some donations from other NGIs who took pity to his
plight. As some of us too have financial commitments and can only help
sparingly, I can see that this family will forever be facing financial difficulties. Of
course we NGIs will try to help as best as possible; but is it possible for your good
office to channel the right welfare office to help them?
- The mother is not working now; breadwinner role is assumed by Gnanam and
maybe the sister who works too.

3 December 2009

- After the return from our trip to Melaka today, at about 9.30pm we (Sekar, myself
and Sunny) dropped Gnanam back to his Taman. I had driven off with Sunny to
Taman Manjalara for supper when I received an SOS from Gnanam seeking help :
He did not have any money as his salary for November 09 will only be paid next
week. When he went up to his apartment, he found the mother did not cook the
evening meal for the children – reason: no money to buy food. So after a quick
supper with Sunny, I ordered take away for them and parted with RM100 cash to
Gnanam. His sisters and the young brother were with him and I am sure that they
have not eaten. With a look of genuine concern (he and his sisters), he informed
that the money will be given to his mother.

- Therefore, how best to tackle the state of affairs for this family? Is there a welfare
organization that you can address their problem?

Trip to Melaka

- It was a “mission accomplished” trip – we managed to get the copy of School

Leaving Certificate and copy of his PMR results which were good too. Originally
we wanted Gnanam to personally make the trip on his own to get whatever
documents he had. Apart from the monetary constraints we felt it was required of
us to go the last leg and made sure the trip was not wasted :
1) without our persistence to the school staff who were indifferent to the request
and the last-minute request-action perhaps due to the fact that they were about
to go off for their school break (understandably) I think Gnanam will have
gone there and came back empty-handed. I had to write a letter to the school
office seeking their kind assistance and it helped.
2) Even if Gnanam went by bus to Melaka, the distance to his school/welfare
home would be so time-consuming and the time wasted in moving around
would have meant that he would have returned to KL empty-handed.
3) The above would really jeopardize his chances for A-Levels intake next
month as submission of documents to your good office would have been
incomplete.
4) There was no record of his sporting achievements as the Co-Curriculum
Teacher has left the school already.
5) We has to rushed from Kepong to Melaka at almost 3.00pm as Gnanam did
not get management approval for early leave from work. His work functions
besides sales promotion was also to handle cash collections and report
submissions. We got a bit impatient waiting for him since 1.00pm but he was
apologetic to us to let him finish his report submission before making the trip.
 This in effect showed a sense of maturity and responsibility in his work and
some degree of good attitude.

- Visit to the Welfare Home in Jalan Durian Daun, Melaka where Gnanam spent
about 5 years of his childhood (2000 – 2004); during which time he sat for his
PMR and SPM examinations and attained commendable results. Again this is a
good indicator of his studying attributes. I am confident he will excel in the A-
Levels as well. This was an opinion similarly shared by the Timbalan Pengetua of
Rumah Budak laki-Laki Tun Abdul Aziz, Puan Zainon Binti Soli during our
meeting/discussion at the Home today.

- In fact Puan Zainon gave words of encouragement to Gnanam to excel in his A-

Levels and further his academic excellence in law, in the hope that he will return
one day to the Home to motivate the students there to follow his example.

- My frank discussion with Gnanam on the reason for his stint in the Home,
revealed that the main cause being that the parents had troubled marriage life
which often led to outbursts of quarrels and fights much to the concern of the
neighbours who called the welfare authorities to look into the wellbeing of the
children (6 of them). Gnanam was sent to the Home in Melaka, whilst the rest
were sent to a Home in Cheras. Again this is another plus point in Gnanam as a
boy who was by compulsion sent to a Home just because the family infrastructure
was at the time somewhat unstable. He has no juvenile record whatsoever. This
reinforce our belief that this well-mannered boy has a good degree of integrity
and maturity.

A handful of NGIs like us would really like to see Gnanam walk the right path in
life and achieve academic excellence in the hope of securing a good job and
earning capacity and move out of the poverty and impoverished circle. We are
relieved that your good office will be able to see to his continued education. A
parallel concern is the welfare of Gnanam and his siblings which is currently in
an unstable nature and which we hope your good office can also look into.

Thank you YB in anticipation of solutions to the above matters and looking

forward to working closely with you, to the best of our ability.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Wong
012-3799248