Home Visit

2 August 2016 - Terrible, Terrible, TERRIBLE!

I joined the home visit organized by the Student Council on this moody Tuesday evening. We visited 2 different homes, namely:

Handicapped & Mentally Disabled Children Center
&

Pertubuhan Kebajikan Villa Harapan 

Prior to that, we have already collected some donations from the students and bought some essential items such as rice, cooking oil, toothbrush, breads and so on, to be donated to the homes. The Student Council members lead by the Community Director, Yassin (my friend) really did a good job by sacrificing their time planning and by organizing these home visits.

The first home that we visited was the children center. Most of the children there suffered from cerebral palsy. They either have certain degree of mental retardation, or some have functional impairment and unable to walk or talk normally.

The environment there is bad. Most of the children have to sleep on beds without bed sheets and not much spaces were there for them. I thought the condition is bad until I walked upstairs, it is worse! Some people are locked in a room, and some are just abandoned in another room, with no attention being given or whatsoever.

The strong stench of urine is petrifying, along with the sticky marble floor that kisses our soles as we walked by, ewwww! More than 15 kids are staying upstairs, or should I say, thrown upstairs.

Most of the children are in the growing phase, but they are being dumped into the home just like that, ignored and abandoned. There are also some adults which suffered from the same disease as well, although they are able to converse in their mother tongue but they are not coherent and the things that they spoke is irrelevant.

The second home we visited is Villa Harapan. The name sounds like a grand villa filled with hope but actually, it's NOT! This home is actually catered for the homeless people on the street of Melaka. It is sponsored by the government to provide food, shelter and clothes to the homeless people.

Having said that, the residents are actually not allowed to roam freely outside, unless during the time where their family members (if any) were to come and visit.

Some of the are even locked in 'lokap' or jail, with the reason that they caused violence and are dangerous to the surrounding people. The condition is terrible as well. In a small cell, 3 people are packed within with just a toilet, no lights, no bed, nothing. I can't help but feel that the dogs in my neighbourhood lives better quality lives than them.

Visited these homes again reminded me of how lucky I am, compared to some unfortunate people on the same planet. I am sure each and every one of them have their own sad chapters in life, and those are the stories that no one is willing to read. 

I personally feel that as individuals, the level of respect we have for one another should be regardless of race, religion, age, position or caste. The way I greet the hostel guard is always no different than to my professors. It is the way we acknowledge people that we will be acknowledged in the same way.

May all be well and happy~ =)