A Meaningful Charity Campaign

It was an emotional end for 126 college students after the charity event aptly named Truly Loving Campaign they organised for three days became a resounding success moreover the money they collected surpassed their initial target.

They were excited that they contributed in a creative way helping the less fortunate, they were happy that everybody congratulated them for a job well done, they were sad because they are many less fortunate people who are being neglected and they were relieved, the stress that comes together with organising such an event has passed.

The event that started on 11^th August ended two days later. After three days they manage to collect RM22,018.00 from the sales of The Truly Loving Company’s (TLC) household and personal care products.. Their initial target was to sell off products worth RM12,000.00.

A mock receipt bearing the total sales was handed over by the Head of the School of Social Science and Humanities, Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TAR College), Mr. Lee Hwee Chuin to the CEO of TLC, Julia C F Chong at the end of the closing ceremony on 13^th August 2008 at the College Hall, TAR College Kuala Lumpur main campus in Jalan Ulu Klang, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur.

The charity campaign was organised by 77 Year One students of the Advance Diploma Mass Communication (Public Relations) of TAR College, in partial fulfillment for coursework of AHMC 4034 Events Management.

They also roped in their seniors, 49 of them, Year Two students of the Advance Diploma in Mass Communication (Advertising) to produce creative advertising strategies, in partial fulfillment for coursework of AHMC 5614 Creative Strategy for Advertising.

The objective of the campaign was to create awareness of the unique business structure of TLC that distributes 100% of their dividends to its five charity partners in Malaysia and to promote TLC's products.

The five charity homes are Rumah Aman, Hospis Malaysia, Shelter Home for Children, Handicapped and Mentally Disabled Children Association of Johor Bahru and National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM). The advertising students set up a mock house in the middle of the hall and every visitor was taken to a tour around the “house” and showed how TLC's products could be used around the house and by its occupants and by doing so, contribute to the less fortunate.

In keeping up with the campaign’s concept - Spreading the Love (help the less fortunate) the Truly Loving Campaigners as the students called themselves set up individual information booth for all charity homes and manned it themselves with the knowledge they researched on their own.

During the three day event they also invited talented students from the college to sing and dance on stage, organised a performance by the college’s music society and a celebrity performance from 8TV Chinese entertainment programme Go Go Go to keep the visitors entertained.

To add to the fun a DiGi treasure hunt was also organised to create awareness among the students who visited the event. DiGi, a telecommunications company, was the main sponsor for the charity campaign.

Representatives of the five charity homes were also given time during the three day event to deliver a public talk each to introduce their organisation, objectives, struggles, concerns, vision and the challenges ahead.

More than 3,000 students, their parents, relatives and friends visited the event. TAR College has a 27,000 student population.

Rumah Aman, being one of the beneficiary of the campaign would like to thank TAR College and the Truly Loving Campaigners for their enthusiasm in making the event a meaningful one.

Pirates Ahoy!

Rumah Aman turned into a treasure hunting ground when all the children and invited school friends converged to a tea party and birthday celebrations themed The Pirates of the Caribbean on August 3, 2008.

Some of the children dressed in The Pirates of the Caribbean t-shirts with bandanas, one eyed patches and swashing balloon swords, had a swell time acting as pirates.

Most of the children had their faces painted with beards and moustache and some even had their eyebrows made thicker like those of Captain Hook’s.

Led by Captain Mike Separuh (pronounced spa -rowh, separuh in Malay means half) the magician, the “pirates” had a jolly good time singing, dancing and playing tricks on each other, not forgetting the sword fights which were “aggressive” and “dangerous”.

Each of the 20 school going children of Rumah Aman were given an opportunity to invite three of their school friends and parents to attend the tea party.

Some of them chose to invite their school teachers instead. There were about 100 attendees.

The tea party was thrown by Y. Bhg. Datin Pon Ishak who came with her four sons. Y. Bhg. Datin Pon is the wife of Y. Bhg. Dato’ Ahmad Nawawi, Rumah Aman’s patron.

The tea party was organised partly to celebrate Rumah Aman boys whose birth date falls in July and August besides rewarding the children who did well in the mid term school examinations.

The boys who celebrated their birthdays in July were Muhammad Redha Yaasin who turned 9, Muhammad Ashraf Hakimi, who turned 8, and Muhammad Firdaus Hadiyani who turned 5 years old. The only August birthday boy is Muhamad Faiz Md. Salleh who is now 5 years old.

The boys who did well in their mid term school examinations were Muhammad Firdhan Rahmat,9, who came 1^st in his class and Raziq Hafizi,9, who came 3^rd in his class. The other two were Amirul Amsyar, 8, and Razman Azrai,7.They received a medal and a school bag each from Founder of Rumah Aman, Mehrunissa Dakri.

Abdul Rehman Dakri who is also the founder of Rumah Aman gave away watches to Rumah Aman children who can now tell time. They are Muhamad Firdan, Raziq Hafizi, Muhammad Arif, Muhammad Redha Yaasin all 9 year olds. Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah, Muhammad Asyraf Hakimi, Amirul Amsyar and Roslan Hamgalim, all 8 years old and Razman Azrai, Izzul Isam, Muhammad Hafizuddin and Ahmad Rifqi, all 7 years old.

A butter cake decorated to the theme Pirates of the Caribbean sealed the birthday celebrations.

We like to thank Datin Pon for organising such a wonderful tea party, our children’s friends and their parents for joining in the celebrations, “Captain Mike Separuh” who kept us entertained and Aunty Aishah Halim for the cake and its creative decorations.

Our TV Stars

Two of Rumah Aman’s children were selected to join a children’s programme entitled Haiwan Teladan (Exemplary Animals) produced by the country’s premier private television station TV3.

The boys, Razman Azrai bin Muhammad Halim and Izzul Isam bin Hairul Azeman both 7 years old, were selected by the programme producer Junaidah Md. Pin of the show.

Razman Azrai and Izzul Isam and 10 other boys and girls attended recording every weekend beginning July 12^th until August 9^th, 2008 at the Children's Creative Centre, 3C Complex, Subang Jaya, Selangor.

The programme is produced in conjunction with the coming of Ramadhan 1429 Hijrah. The programme will be based on animal stories from the Quran and al-Hadith. It will be aired on Mondays to Fridays at 9.00 am to 9.30 am in the whole month of Ramadhan.

The programme will enhance their communication skills and interpersonal skills, increase their knowledge in languages and creativity besides being exposed to the stories from the Quran and al-Hadith.

Both Razman Azrai and Izzul Isam are very happy to have been selected and are excited to have the opportunity to make new friends who are also part of the programme.

So, let us not miss the interesting programme produced by TV3 and watch them in action. Razman Azrai plays a lion while Izzul Isam play two parts, one as a tiger and the other as an eagle.

Laundry Area Upgraded

The laundry area which is situated on the right hand side of the building has been upgraded thanks to a generous donor who paid for the renovation works which took about a month to finish.

We have also added a sink with table top at the laundry area to assist the housekeepers with their work besides putting another refrigerator at the end of the corridor of the laundry area which connects to the dinning hall.

The floor of the laundry area is now tiled which was previously cement rendered. The floor was also raised to about 8 inches high to mitigate flood.

The ceiling too has been raised replacing the asbestos ceiling we had previously making the laundry area more spacious and airy. We also moved the air conditioning chiller to a more suitable part of the home.

To help us deal with the floods, we built water traps at
the four lowest points around the home and installed water pumps. Though it will not avoid the flood but it will surely help us clear the water in a shorter time.

At the beginning of the laundry area, which is the front part of the building, we have built a new store room which can now store more goods consisting of soap, detergents and other useful contributions donated by the public.

We have also expanded the porch area and installed new roofing. It can now function for multiple uses. Presently we are using it as a garage, and a catering place when there are visitors to Rumah Aman.

We view this as our last upgrading work to the building and hopefully it will last us for a long time, furthermore it makes the place neater and better.

Visitors From Singapore

The Hua Yi Secondary School brass band consisting of thirty students and five teachers paid a visit and performed at Rumah Aman on June 9, 2008.

The students, girls and boys mostly aged 15 years old were in Malaysia for a student exchange programme with a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur between the 7^th to 10^th June 2008.

They visited Rumah Aman because they wanted to interact with the children.

Upon arriving, the students were divided into small groups of eight and took turns listening to the briefing on Rumah Aman by our adminstrator, Rosnah Abdul Mutalib and guided tours by teachers, Ema Syarina and Nor Izzah.

The teachers and students of Hua Yi were very impressed with the set up of Rumah Aman, especially on the standard of cleanliness kept.

The brass band then performed about 15 songs, mostly English songs to the enjoyment of the children who were also excited to have been given an opportunity to play on some of the musical instruments after the performance.

The visit was capped with a friendly football match between the boys of the brass band and children of Rumah Aman who were represented by the older boys.

It was a wonderful gesture from Hua Yi Secondary School. We hoped the students enjoyed our company as we enjoyed the brass band performance greatly. The football match was fun too.

We hope we will get the opportunity to visit them in Singapore in the near future, insya-Allah.

Down With Chicken Pox

All 26 children were down with chicken pox in batches for about a month beginning June 20, 2008.

The first to contract the chicken pox was Muhammad Ariff Fauzi,9, followed by the others in his age group then it spread to the 8 year olds, the 7 year olds, the 6 year olds and the 5 and 4 year olds.

Each boy recuperated within the span of two weeks upon contracting the illness.

In treating the chicken pox, besides medicine from the medical clinic, the boys were also treated with neem leaves, being a traditional remedy in Malaysia for chicken pox.

Usually, the leaves are pounded and mixed with bedak sejuk ( literally translated as cold talcum) – made from grounded fermented rice grains. It is then dried out in the sun, first shaped into droplets. It is then mixed with water before it is applied on to the body affected with the chicken pox. It gives a very cooling effect

The neem leaves can also be used to scratch the body as it gives a soothing effect and at night, can be slept on as it helps rid the itchiness. The neem tree can be found abundantly around Shah Alam.

Our housemother, Norzuraiini who is in her middle 20’s also contracted the chicken pox with the first batch of children while our principal, Khalid Shah, 46, contracted the chicken pox with the last batch of children.

We thank Klinik Soraya for giving the boys free medical services.

ABX Express Family Day

Our boys were special guests to the ABX Express Family Day held at Padang Bola B (Football Field B) Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur on 7^th June 2008.

ABX Express (M) Sdn. Bhd. is an international courier company and one of our benefactor being the donor of the 12 seater van to transport the boys to and from school. (See posting in May 2007).

The event was a whole day affair. Everybody arrived at about 8.00 in the morning and by 9.00 am the event kick started with a session of aerobics which the boys also joined in.

Being a family day, there were lots of activities for adults and children. Everybody had a good time and not to mention there were lots of food and drinks.

Our children participated in some mini sports held for the children like filling bottles with water using a sponge. They also entered the colouring contest. Though they did not win any prizes this time, but they enjoyed themselves all the same.
The boys how ever stayed until about 2.30 pm and before parting ways, recited a doa before singing If You're Happy and You Know It and The Wheel On The Bus as a gesture of appreciation to ABX Express.

May, June Birthday Boys

The May and June birthday boys had a special treat to a tutti-fruity cake and movie at Encik Fauzi and Puan Nina’s home in Secksyen 9, Shah Alam held on June 5, 2008.

The couple’s children and their friends also joined in the celebration.

The June birthday boys were Raziq Hafizi, Muhammad Arif Fauzi and Mohamad Norfadhil Shah Mokhtar who all three turned 9 years old.

The May birthday boys who joined in the celebrations were Roslan Hamgalim and Mohamad Noramirul Shah Mokhtar who turned 8, and Muhammad Hafizudin Badiuzaman who is now 7 years old.

The children were served lunch before they were treated to a movie entitled Alvin and the Chipmunks that got them laughing in stitches.

After the movie show, they adjourned to cut the birthday cake but before that, ice cream was served to delight of the children and also the adults.

The boys really enjoyed themselves and couldn’t stop copying the antics of the chipmunks. We must all say thank you to Encik Fauzi and Puan Nina, Ili, Saara, Bella and Hafiy for the hospitality and kindness.