THE FIFTH YEAR RUNNING

In 1997,  I started to help my friend and colleague Ustaz Syed to collect funds to buy new festive clothes for orphans and needy children for Hari Raya Puasa.  The ustaz (religious teacher) runs a centre which houses orphans, needy children and old folks.  I also roped in Kamariah to help the children shop for clothes after we have collected the funds.  2011 will be the fifth year that we are carrying out this project.
This year, the total amount of money collected from the teachers, staff, students and other well-wishers to buy clothes for the orphans and the needy amounted to RM 1,098. Of this, RM200 will be allocated to buy Goodie bags for the needy senior citizens and single mothers. RM896 will be used to buy new Raya clothes for the orphans and needy children. Ustaz Syed added RM750 from the Orphans Funds from the Religious Centre to top up the amount to enable us to buy the Baju Melayu, Baju Kurung and slippers for the boys and girls.  Our budget is RM70 for each child.
In the above picture, you see Kamariah, Ustaz Syed and I in discussion about how to use the funds collected.
During our discussion, we have decided that the boys will be taken to the shops on Monday afternoon to buy new clothes. The girls will have their turn on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, the librarians will represent the school to present the Goodie bags to the 10 needy senior citizens at the Religious Centre.
Besides the two of us, there will be another 4 more teachers who will be helping to ferry the children from the centre to the shops and another 3 more who would be helping the children to buy their clothes and shoes.