31st of March 2016
Another year, another birthday - our 7 th to be exact!
I would have to say that the most enduring memory of the past year is the sight of Insaf’s doctors and nurses, set against the beautiful backdrop of the Annapurna mountains, administering care and medicines to the inhabitants of Laprak, a very remote and almost inaccessible village in Nepal, in the aftermath of the earthquake. We, at Insaf Malaysia, felt very privileged to be amongst the NGOs and charitable organizations which travelled to Nepal in order to help these kind and gentle people. Our experience during the Nepal earthquake has taught us a lot about resilience, strength and hard work. Insaf Malaysia’s relief work in Nepal was documented by the Star newspaper and we are very grateful to them for their endorsement.
Our Tampal Rumah program gained a lot of momentum in the last year. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers (UCSI International School and UiTM students participated on a couple of weekends) and to the funds donated by a very generous general public and companies alike, from April 2015 to March 2016 we built 33 houses in various “orang asal’, settlements in Selangor (among others Air Kuning, Sungai Buah, Bukit Tampoi, Kelinsing, Pulau Carey)and Kelantan. Our largest number of houses so far! And we are indeed all very proud of such an achievement.
At the moment we are in the process of helping the settlers of Kg. OA Bukit Jenuk and Kg. OA Unggul, Dengkil to secure electricity and water, for their respective villages. With any luck both villages should have both utilities installed by June 2016. We have also been testing solar panels, installed by the students of UiTM, Shah Alam and in the near future we are hoping to be able to install more panels in many more “orang asal’ villages.
On the 14th of September 2015 Insaf Malaysia signed a MoU with the University of Selangor (Unisel) to offer guidance with relief work using the cluster system. The first pioneer program, ‘Desa Angkat’ was held last weekend in the village of Tanjung Jawa, Sabak Bernam, Selangor. More and more programs in many more districts in Selangor will hopefully follow in the year ahead.
Our Food program (Food cluster) has been very active and all throughout the year has distributed basic food items (rice, sugar, crackers, oil) to many old folk’s homes and orphanages and we are currently looking for more companies to sponsor us with this endeavor.
Our ‘foodbank’ is always in need of replenishment and any contribution will be very welcome.
Under our ‘Welfare program – Urban Poverty” we have reached out to several schools around the Klang Valley, Selangor and delivered food and rice to the children from underprivileged families. In addition we have done eye screening tests, helped by the students of SEGi University and provided free glasses and free school uniforms to those children whose parents could not afford the expense.
Another important aspect of our involvement with school and education has been to provide motivational talks together with Harith Mind Excel centre, for young students in primary and secondary schools where there is a high percentage of truancy and some drug related problems. We are hoping that participating in sports can help young minds to focus and to do well in school. Hence, our involvement in the rugby tournament at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Lembah Keramat. The tournament will commence in May.
Before I conclude let me once again give a big thank you to all our donors, our volunteers and our committee members.
Ishak Abdul Kadir
