The Unfortunates

Today is the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. Woke up a bit late today. Was lazing on the bed.

Visited 3 places after a late breakfast. These are my routine visits yearly.

My 1st stop - Handicapped and Disabled Children's Association of Klang, Selangor. There are about 72 kids altogether this year. Apparently the numbers are growing. I spent about half an hour there enquiring about the kids. Many of them have been abandoned by their parents. Mostly single parents, unwed moms. It is indeed a very sad sight. And when you hear about some of their conditions, your heart will break.

This girl is about 10-11 years old. She cannot see. Her eyes are all white....no pupils. Whatever that you speak, she follows. Very adorable girl indeed. You speak in English.."Hello" and she follows "Hello". You speak in Mandarin..."Gong Xi Fa Cai"..and she follows. Whatever language you speak she just follows. But she cannot understand what you are saying. She just has the gift of following every single word you say. The Principal of this association said she has just joined them not long ago and they intend to send her to a special school so that at least she gets to learn.

This boy is 3 years old. A Down Syndrome child born to a teenage mother. A teenage mother!!! I asked, how is it possible for a young mother to give birth to a Down Syndrome baby? I thought it only happens to mothers who conceived at a late age. Well, apparently this mother has been on drugs....ecstasy, ice and whatever sort. Got pregnant out of wedlock and the result is this boy.

He is so cute. Smiled when he realised I took a snapshot of him. Behind his smile lies a sad story. His mother has abandoned him. what to expect, right? A teenage mother who is not even capable of looking after herself, what more to look after a Down Syndrome baby? This boy had bone cancer. But he has recovered from it. He also has a hole in his heart. Doctors said he is too young for surgery, thus need to wait till he turns five. I hope with proper care from this association, he will remain in good health till he is due for surgery.

This boy has got bruises on his arms. I did not ask how he got them. I supposed some are self inflicted. I saw a girl being tied to the bed. They had to tie her up as she is prone to injuring herself.

I visit this place every year. Some faces which I saw last year are not seen this year. They have passed on. It's really heart wrenching. 2 kids, also new cases...I was told were sent by their babysitters. Single moms again, they were abandon at the babysitter's place. And they have no birth certs. This association will look into applying the birth certs for them as well. It will be a tough process, though as they didn't have much info about these children.

One boy, is blinded on one eye. He has hypertension (hear that?? a boy about aged 4-5 has hypertension!!) and also water in his eye causing the eye to swell. he has undergone 3 operations and need to go for more. His dad, it seems is a cambodian while mom is a chinese. I didn't capture his picture. I'm not even sure if it's alright for me to put up their pictures here. It is not my intention to belittle them. Neither do I want my readers to poke fun at them.

There are so many kids....11 years old who is only having a size of a 5 year old. A lot of them are bedridden. They can't even sit up. Many has bone defects. There are just so many of them.

At times I do wonder if it is good to have so many of such kind hearted associations around. The more we have, the more irresponsible people we are going to create.

These people think that the associations are solution to their irresponsible act. They just dump the kids there and then disappear for good. True enough, the associations are there to shelter and provide for the kids. But it is not to encourage these humans to just simply sleep around and not think of the consequences. While sex may be pleasureable, I think it comes with a sense of responsibility and maturity. It's not just to have some fun.

My next stop was to the orphanage. 28 children in that sheltered home. They are perfectly normal children. Some mothers could not afford to look after them because they need to earn a living and husband has abandoned them. Some, again are not married. So they leave the kids there and then never come back for them anymore.

This Samaritan Home has volunteers who come and help during weekends or any other day. They provide tuition to the kids. Teach the kids discipline and so on. The kids get proper education and fees are borne by the Samaritan Home. So where do they get the financial aid? Of course, they count on us on whatever amount that we can contribute.

My final stop was to the Old Folks home. Last time, we gave out angpows to individuals. Then we were told better not to do so. Why? Because some of their children who hardly visit them will come by once a year and take away the angpows from them. Every year, they do get quite a lot of angpows because so many people will come and visit them. The children will come later on and take away the angpows from them. See how ungrateful the children are? Already they are being unfilial for not caring for their parents, next they take the angpows away. So what we do nowadays...we contribute to the association as well. So that they can use that fund whenever emergency arises, ie medical aid.

While there are still many caring people in the society, there are also many irresponsible ones. They throw and we scoop. Just exactly how much can we help? How are we going to curb these issues?

I think we need to create public awareness. How? I don't really know. I'm not an expert here. Counselling, perhaps?