A Safe Haven for Children
On April 12th, Ambassador Dr. Gruber and a delegation from the Embassy visited the „Pusat Aktiviti Kanak-Kanak“ which is run by the Nur Salam Yayasan Foundation in Kuala Lumpur's Chow Kit area.
On three levels the shophouse operates as a drop-in and crisis centre for 80 - 100 children of various ages. „The children come from various ethnic backgrounds, their mostly one-parent families are not able to provide them with shelter and stability,“ explains Ms. Ananti Raj, the centre manager. „Many of the children have been trafficked or are children of sex workers or drug addicts. A lot of them don't have papers or are stateless and therefore can't attend local schools.“
The centre provides a safe haven for all children, particularly for those at high risk, to get off the streets.
Food, shelter and counselling as well as participation in home schooling and educational and recreational programs are offered. Most of the children come after school and on weekends, but increasing numbers of children stay overnight.
One room and the small kitchen area desperately needed an overhaul to turn the dormitory into a multi purpose room with a sensible safe storage space and to outfit the kitchen area with cabinets.
With funds from the Embassy's micro project program both objectives could be realized within a couple of weeks.
The colourful sturdy cabinets certainly upgrade the two rooms.
„Some of the older children have been assigned their own cubbies“, explains Ananti, „a place to keep private things boosts a child's feeling of safety.“
Since 5 year olds can hardly appreciate the value of new kitchen cabinets, games and toys were part of the deal too and were received enthusiastically.
