Welcome to Rumah Aman

Iftar with Bank Rakyat Berhad

2011-08-23T11:14:00.029+08:00

The boys and staff of Rumah Aman were guests of Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Berhad (www.bankrakyat.com.my) at their iftar (breaking of fast) which was held at the Sime Darby Convention Centre on Friday August 19, 2011.

Rumah Aman received a cheque from Bank Rakyat as part of their zakat and the boys each received cash for the upcoming Eid Fitr.

From all of us at Rumah Aman, a very big THANK YOU to Bank Rakyat.

Our Friends in Blackburn

2011-08-23T10:00:00.021+08:00

All of us at Rumah Aman are always grateful to Allah for blessing us with friends who care and believe in what we are doing. This is especially so during this blessed month of Ramadhan and when Rumah Aman 2 is well on the way to completion.

Our friends in Blackburn is a case in point. Since 2008, through the tireless efforts of Sister Sofia Esa and Sister Latifa Umar, the ladies from Blackburn have contributed a total of GBP53,000 (GBP20,000 in 2008 and GBP33,000 in 2009) raised during charity dinners that were organised. Besides the charity functions, contributions from our friends in the U.K have been deposited into an account with Habibsons Bank Ltd and periodically transferred to Malaysia.

In recognition of their generosity, we are giving them the honour of naming the prayer hall (or 'surau' in Malay) at Rumah Aman 2. So come on ladies, put on your thinking caps and submit your entries by posting comments to this post.

To our friends in Blackburn, Jazakallahu Khairan Kathiro and to everyone Ramadhan Kareem.

Ahlah Wa Sahlan Ya Ramadhan Al-Mubarak

2011-08-01T13:17:00.008+08:00

Assalamualaikum.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Ahlan Wa Sahlan Ya Ramadhan...

Rumah Aman wish you and family a Happy and Blessed Ramadhan. May Allah's blessings shine upon you and your loved ones always. May this month of Ramadhan be a month of inspiration filled with Iman and Taqwa and Divine Love for Allah swt.

In this month of giving and feeling for one another, we hope we're always in your thoughts. Rumah Aman still seeks your care, assistance and support to bring about a change for the better to the lives of 110 children when Rumah Aman 2 in Sungai Buloh is ready.

Please visit our website www.rumahaman.com to find out more about Rumah Aman Shah Alam and Rumah Aman 2 in Sungai Buloh.

Ramadhan Kareem to all!

Jazakallahu Khairan Kathiro. Wasalam.

Warmest Regards,

Mr. & Mrs. Abdul Rehman Dakri

Staff and Children of Rumah Aman

Maher Zain at Rumah Aman!

2010-10-19T13:15:00.014+08:00

Maher Zain, the Swedish/Lebanese singer/music producer of "Thank You Allah" fame and his friends Brother Amir and Brother Wali ur-Rahman dropped in for a surprise visit at Rumah Aman on Friday 15 October 2010. They spent 2 hours with Brother Abdul Rehman Dakri (the founder), staff and children of Rumah Aman.

Good Show at SKRM Sports Day

2010-04-14T16:20:00.000+08:00

Some of our boys did quite well in the Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda annual school sports held on April 6, 2010 at the National Sports Complex, Seksyen 4 Shah Alam.

Roslan Hamgalim, 10, managed third placing and won the bronze medal for the 100 meters dash and helped his Yellow House to win the bronze medal for the 4 x 100 meters relay team.

Ahmad Amri Arba’in, also 10 years old also managed to get third placing for the 100 meters dash for the special children class and helped his relay team to win the 4 x 100 meters silver medal.

Muhammad Firdan Rahmat, 11, with 33 of his team mates made the Red House proud when they won the gold medal for the best house in the marching competition.

Good show boys and keep up the good spirit of sportsmanship.

Academic Acolades

2010-02-11T15:57:00.008+08:00

Three of Rumah Aman boys attending primary education at Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda (SKRM), Seksyen 4, Shah Alam showed their academic potential by registering good results for their end year school examination.

Abu Hurairah bin Junatal,8, surprised everyone when he came out tops in his class of Year One for the 2009 end year examination.

Rizal, 10, also made great improvements in his academic prowess when he came out 4^th in his class for the end year examination

Ahmad Amri Arba’in, 10, who is in a class for special children also came out tops in his class.

All three received a certificate of excellence and a plaque each.

Our Year One Student of 2010

2010-01-22T15:52:00.000+08:00

This year, seven of Rumah Aman boys entered primary school Year One beginning January 4^th 2010.

They are Tuan Noor Umarul Amin bin Tuan Noor Azmi, Mohammad Ikhwan Shauqi bin Azwani Sham, twins, Muhammad Ilyas and Ilyasaq bin Mohd Azmi,, Muhammad Firdaus bin Hadiyani, Muhammad Azim bin Mohd Abdullah Sajat and Muhammad Faiz bin Md Saleh.

All of them are attending Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda at Jalan Cempedak Seksyen 4, Shah Alam.

In addition, our six year old boy, Aidil Afiat bin Yaziz has also begun attending pre-school education at the same school on the same day.

We hope they will enjoy school and study hard.

New Website Offcially Launched

2010-01-14T11:59:00.005+08:00

The new Rumah Aman website was officially launched by founder, Abdul Rehman Dakri on 31^st December 2009 to replace the older version which has been dormant for some time now.

The web blog was designed and uploaded with the assistance of a friend of Rumah Aman, Mr. Amir Shariffuddin in May 2009.

We also like to take this opportunity to convey our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our former administrator, Ms. Saliyati Suhaimi for designing and uploading our very first website in 2005 and to Mr. Jamalus Ramli for creating our blog in 2007 in the absence of the website.

The launching of the new website http://www.rumahaman.com was one of the highlights of Rumah Aman prize giving day for the year 2009 to celebrate the children who did well in their studies and also for those who improved on their adab at school and also at Rumah Aman.

The children were excited and happy to see their pictures and profiles posted in the new website and also in the interactive CD, produced by the students of One Academy. Among others it featured a short video on the life of the children in Rumah Aman.

The event was opened with a dua by Mohamad Ikhwan Shauqi, 6, followed by a Quran recital by Asyraf Hakimi, 9 years old. The Masters of Ceremonies were Raziq Hafizi and Muhammad Arif, both 10 years old who spoke alternately in English and Malay.

This year the 6 year-olds, namely Muhammad Azim, Muhamad Faiz, Muhammad Firdaus, Mohammad Ikhwan Shauqi, Tuan Noor Umarul and the twins, Muhammad Ilyas and Ilyasaq were presented with a certificate of attendance for having followed pre-school in Rumah Aman.

The prizes to the winners for the sports and games were presented by Abdul Rehman’s mother, Mrs. Huri Dakri. The sports festival was held at Rumah Aman from 9^th to 21^st December 2009. The overall champion was team Yaqin. The other competing teams were Taqwa, Sabar, Iman, and Ehsan.

During the 12 days sports festival, there were eight indoor games contested namely table tennis for both the children and staff, checkers, scrabble, chess, monopoly, sahiba (malay language scrabble), congkak ( a traditional malay indoor game) and a jig-saw puzzle competition for the six, seven and eight year old boys and one outdoor game namely, rounders.

For the second year running Razman Azrai , 8, and Raziq Hafizi, 10, each won the best student award for their age group while Abu Hurairah,7, and Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah,9, came out tops in their age group.

Roslan Hamgalim,9, won the Most Pleasant Child award in Rumah Aman for his good adab, likeable personality, willingness to co-operate in all aspects in Rumah Aman, and is a responsible person.

Well done boys.

Rumah Aman Sports Day 2009

2010-01-08T14:45:00.003+08:00

During the last school holidays, the boys and staff of Rumah Aman had lots of fun participating in the sports festival that was held from December 9^th. to 21^st. 2009, the longest sports event ever held in our five years of operation.

There were eight indoor games contested namely table tennis for both the children and staff, checkers, scrabble, chess, monopoly, sahiba (Malay language scrabble), congkak ( a traditional Malay indoor game) and a jigsaw puzzle competition for the five, six, seven and eight year old boys.

The children were divided into five groups of six members each according to their dormitory Taqwa, Sabar, Iman, Ehsan and Yaqin. Each group were joined by the adult staff. All games were played in a league format except monopoly, scrabble and sahiba.

The indoor games were played from 9^th.to 17^th.December 2009. Each group picked one or two players to be pitted against players from the other groups. The winners and losers were each awarded points accordingly that is 3 points for winning, 1 point if the result was tied and 0 points for losing.

The last competition held on 21^st December was an outdoor game called rounders, where the staff also joined in and tried very hard to give everyone a run for their money.

Everyone had lots of fun especially the children who were given a lot more time to play than attending classes. Heartening to note, they showed a lot of fighting spirit and teamwork and willing to listen to instructions to help their team win.

Congratulations Amirul, Raziq

2010-01-02T12:41:00.002+08:00

Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah Mokhtar, 9, and Raziq Hafizi Mohd Tamin,10, both from Rumah Aman, came out 1^st and 3^rd respectively in a robotic competition organised by RC Planet Sdn. Bhd. at the Ikano Power Centre, Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya on December 19^th 2009.

Rumah Aman had five representatives at the final rounds which consisted of 10 finalist. The other three boys from Rumah Aman were Muhammad Arif Fauzi, 10, Mohd Rizal Abdullah, 9 and Muhammad Asyraf Hakimi Zul Abidin, also 9 years old.

The competition was the highlight of RC Planet’s month long charity drive campaign from December 1^st to 31^st to create awareness on its robotics learning program suitable for children aged 5 years and above and also for interested parties who would like to sponsor other underprivileged children to attend the robotic classes.

The program themed Bringing Fun & Creative Education To Every Children is supported and endorsed by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. The program will end on 21^st March 2010.

RC Planet being the main organiser and training provider had picked 10 children from Rumah Aman under its underprivileged sponsorship program who joined other paying children to kick start the campaign. They had to undergo eight lessons before the competition proper.

The program was declared open by the Deputy Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Y.B. Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun who later graciously gave away the prizes.

Amirul received a cash voucher of RM500.00 and Raziq received a cash voucher of RM200.00 for them to spend at RC Planet.

CEO of RC Planet, Mr. TP Yeap said the campaign is held in conjunction with the effort by the Malaysian Government to develop the skills and knowledge in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics using robotics amongst the younger generation.

“The theme Bringing Fun & Creative Education To Every Child is to provide an opportunity to underprivileged children a chance to experience, gain and enjoy the fun, knowledge skills and understanding of educational robotics.

“RC Planet will also sponsor one underprivileged child for the robotic course for every paying child enrolled during the campaign period from December 1^st 2009 until March 21^st 2010.

“Caring corporations are encouraged to sponsor children from homes for the underprivileged as part of their social responsibility activities and in support of the campaign,” he said.

For information on the campaign and the program, please visit http://www.rcplanet.com.my/robotics.

1.Amirul (left) and the other children building their robots.

2.A trainer guiding the children in their work.

3.Raziq seems engrossed in his task.

Thank You Puan Nani

2009-12-28T11:43:00.003+08:00

After dedicating every Monday afternoons teaching English Language to Rumah Aman’s children for four years, this new year, Puan Nani Rashid Ghows will offer her services as a volunteer at another orphanage and welfare home.

She will teach English Language at Al-Khadeem’s House of Hope in Lorong Rabingan, Seksyen 32 Shah Alam. She will teach the primary and secondary students.

A farewell party was held for her on December 21^st 2009 and was attended by the children and the staff. Founder, Abdul Rehman Dakri thanked Puan Nani for her effort and time and commended her for her good work.

“You are the only volunteer who stayed with us for four years. We are grateful and thankful for your support and I believe the children had learned much from you. I wish you well and success in your next endevour and may the children there benefit from you too,’’ said Abdul Rehman in his speech.

Puan Nani in her speech thanked Rumah Aman for giving her the opportunity to teach the children and advised the children to study hard and be focus in their studies.

“I’m sad to leave the children. I see their progress from year to year. I see them grow up in front of me,” holding tears in her eyes but continued to add that she felt it was time for her to move on and depart whatever little knowledge she has to another group of children.

We will miss you much Puan Nani and may your new students benefit from you as our children have. Thank you for everything. Please remember us in your prayers and do come visit us sometime.

Puan Nani (second from right) with some of the children and staff of Rumah Aman.

Recipient of DHL Book Drive

2009-10-23T17:09:00.010+08:00

Our benefactor, the Truly Loving Company (TLC) participated in a book donation drive organised by their corporate buddy DHL, recently.

TLC included two of their charity partners, namely Rumah Aman and Shelter Home for children as beneficiaries of the drive.

The books in English and Malay were presented to Rumah Aman by TLC’s director Mr. Khaw Chay Tee on October 6^th.

The children were delighted to receive the books. It will surely enhance their general knowledge and help them improve their reading and spelling skills.

Pix 1: Mr. Khaw Chay Tee, director of TLC handing over the books to Mr. Khalid Shah, principal of Rumah Aman.

Pix 2: Some of the children browsing through some of the books received from DHL's book donation drive.

Visit by Young UK Musicians

2009-09-09T16:14:00.006+08:00

Six post graduate students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama United Kingdom visited Rumah Aman on August 20, and made music for the children.

The children had fun singing along with the students and the one that captured their imagination most was making harmonic noises to the rhythm of a beat-box music.

The students, Jonathan Ang (Singapore), Fernando Machado (Brazil), Felipe Souza (Portugal), Aiko (Japan), Letty (United Kingdom) and Preetha (USA) were in Singapore and Malaysia for a leadership programme which forms part of their school curriculum.

While in Malaysia, they were hosted by The Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO).

MPYO Senior Executive, Audrey Huey Lin Ho said, the students had visited the National Arts Culture and Heritage Academy and also attended a music workshop withn their peers at the Music Faculty of MARA University Institute of Technology (UiTM).

She said, the students were here to interact with local musicians in their age group without much assitance of musical instruments to produce a "very organic" kind of music.

Rumah Aman was their last stop before proceeding to Bali for a vacation and then for home.

Football Clinic for Our Boys

2009-08-18T15:58:00.001+08:00

Our benefactor, The Truly Loving Company (TLC) organised a football clinic on August 12 for our boys who were excited to be under the able guidance of Malaysian former international, Mohd Khasim Kasi Abdullah.

Doning their new football jerseys, compliments from TLC, the boys from the age of 7 to 10 years old eagerly displayed their talents to Mohd Khasim who was impressed with their discipline and determination and how quickly they organised themselves.

Mohd Khasim will continue another five sessions of training with the boys where he will teach them the basics of the game and introduce a regime to enhance their football skills.

The football clinic was organised by TLC as part of its programme to support Rumah Aman as a charity partner. At the end of the football clinic that day, TLC made a donation of RM10,000.00 to Rumah Aman.

Thank you TLC. Thank you Mohd Khasim.

Exposure at Fella Design

2009-07-21T21:08:00.004+08:00

Rumah Aman was given a booth, compliments from Fella Design when it held its sales expo at its head office in Persiaran Elektron, Bukit Subang, Selangor from 26th June to 5th July.

Rumah Aman was however unable to participate for the whole duration of the expo due to prior commitments but managed to set up the booth from 26th to 28th June (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). The teachers and administration staff took turns to man the booth.

The response from the public was most heartwarming and we believed through that event Rumah Aman was given much exposure and were able to reach out to a lot more people.

Those who patronised the event was also very generous in giving. Rumah Aman managed to raise RM1,200.00 during the three days we were there.

Thank you Fella Design especially to Kelvin and his staff for being very helpful and attended to our needs during the exposition.

A Guest From Finland

2009-07-15T20:51:00.007+08:00

On 22nd June 2009, Rumah Aman received a guest from Finland, Dr. Parvez Alam who was representing a charity body called Fighting For Lives ( http://www.fightingforlives.com) .

Figthing For Lives is a charity body consisting of martial art exponents who raise funds for children charities by organising martial arts seminars.

Dr. Parvez Alam who is a silat expert himself (silat is a popular martial art form in South East Asia) took time after the science seminar he attended, to visit silat masters in various parts of Malaysia.

He also took the opportunity to visit some orphanages since he was entrusted to distribute food, educational materials, money for building, repairs and re-equipping orphanages with materials besides having fun silat sessions with the children at the orphanages.

Thank you Dr. Parvez Alam for your dedication and contributions. Please do come and visit us again.

To view his trip to Malaysia, please log on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtvUu5CtIs

Flood Mitigation Project

2009-07-07T13:46:00.001+08:00

The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) started a flood mitigation project last May in an effort to curb flooding at Seksyen 2, Seksyen 3 and Seksyen 4 where the water will be about a meter deep after an hour of heavy downpour.

The flood mitigation project consists of digging a covered monsoon drain from the the junction of Jalan Mawar 2/5 and Jalan Bunga Tanjung 2/16 along Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Secondary School and part of Jalan Bunga Cempaka 2/11 where Rumah Aman is situated and part of Jalan Bunga Kertas 2/15 before cutting across the main road, Persiaran Dato' Menteri before converging with the 5.85 meters deep monsoon drain located under the Shah Alam Wet World Theme Park car park where water will then flow into the Damansara River about 700 meters away from Rumah Aman.

The newly constructed monsoon drain will be about 400 meters long from the junction of Jalan Bunga Mawar 2/5 and Jalan Bunga Tanjung 2/1 to the Wet World car park.

Presently the contractor have dug up a monsoon drain measuring 4.5 meters deep and 2 meters wide from the junction of Jalan Bunga Mawar 2/5 and Jalan Bunga Tanjung 2/16, part of Jalan Bunga Cempaka 2/11 and part of Jalan Bunga Kertas 2/15.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the first week of August. We hope the flood mitigation project will be a success.

Our OwnTae Kwan-do Team

2009-06-30T13:21:00.005+08:00

Four of Rumah Aman's children competed in a Petaling District School Spot Council Tae Kwan-do competition last June organised jointly bt the Selangor Tae Kwan-do Associtaion, Petaling Perdana District Schools Office and Petaling Utama District Schools Office.

The competition was opened to school children from the age of 9 to 19 years old in various categories. Our children competed in the primary school category which was held at D'Kelana Hall, Kelana Jaya, Selangor on June 17, 2009.

Muhammad Redha Yaasin, 10, as placed second in the 22kg weight category

Muhammad Arif Fauzi, 10, won the first round against a black belt holder but lost the second round to another black belt holder in the heavyweight category.

Raziq Hafizi and Muhammad Firdan Rahmat, both 10 years old, however, lost to their opponents in the first round in the under 30 kg category.

Although they did not get good results overall, the competition was a good exposure for them since taking up tae kwan-do lesson since two years ago.

Keep it up boys and try harder next time.

Earthwork, Retaining Wall Completed

2009-06-23T13:42:00.009+08:00

The earthworks and building of retaining wall all around the site of Rumah Aman 2 has been completed.

The completed retaining wall at the back measures 27 meters long and 4.5 meters high whilst the retaining wall by the side measures 65 meters long and 6 meters high.

The extended retaining wall at the front of the site was completed this week. It measures 37 meters long and 2 meters high.

We hope when Rumah Aman 2 is ready we will be able to care for 60 orphaned and poor boys and help them shape a better future for themselves and their family members, however, we cannot do this by ourselves, we will need continuous assistance from the public to make this dream a success.

Pictures from top :

1. Completed retaining wall at the side of the area viewed from Jalan Seroja 1/1A.

2. Extended retaining wall near the entrance to the site viewed from Jalan Seroja 1/1.

3. The earth that has been leveled.

4. Extended retaining wall viewed from the junction of Jalan Seroja 1/1 and Jalan Seroja 1/1A.

5. The entrance to Rumah Aman 2 building site.

6. Completed retaining wall at the back area.

Our New Website

2009-05-29T10:13:00.000+08:00

Our new website is up!

We would like to record our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Mr. Amir Sariffuddin for designing the website for us on a volunteer basis.

We hope with the new website, friends of Rumah Aman will be informed about our charity work and the activities of the children.

We also take this opportunity to convey our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our former administrator Ms Saliyati Suhaimi for designing our very first website.

We would also like to thank Mr. Jamalus Ramli from the bottom of our hearts. He had started this blog for us and through it, we were able to disseminate information on Rumah Aman.

Please do visit our website at http://www.rumahaman.com

Welcome Muhammad Azim

2009-04-27T14:42:00.003+08:00

Finally, our 30th child, Muhammad Azim bin Mohd Abdullah Sajat, 6, arrived in Rumah Aman on March 31, 2009. Muhammad Azim is an orphaned child who was living with his mother, three sisters and an elder brother at a low cost flat in Port Klang near Shah Alam.

He has adapted well in Rumah Aman and making fast friends with the other boys his age. Before joining Rumah Aman he attended a government sponsored kindergarten at the flats he lives in and he now know all the alphabets.

We hope, by the time he attends school next year, he will be well prepared.

Earthworks, Retaining Wall Work in Progress

2009-04-24T09:30:00.002+08:00

The earthworks and the building of retaining walls of Rumah Aman 2 have started!

Machines and equipments were brought in on Tuesday March 17, 2009 and work started the next day.

The earthworks will consist of leveling the ground up to the

foundation level and excavation works for the retaining wall.

A generous neighbour has agreed to let us use water from his home until we get our own water supply from the water authority.

The earthworks and building of retaining wall are expected to be completed in four months time.

We welcome anyone who would like to donate or sponsor building

materials for Rumah Aman 2.

First Rumah Aman 2 Site Visit

2009-04-22T13:22:00.011+08:00

The boys, Rumah Aman staff and their families visited Rumah Aman 2 site located at the Sungai Buloh Country Resort in Saujana Utama on March 9, 2009 in anticipation of the building works that will commence soon.

All of us were driving towards the site that morning but halfway, it started to rain heavily so we decided to head to the club house turned Thai restaurant instead. The security person was kind to let us use the premise since it had not yet started operations for the day.

After everybody was gathered and settled, Jamalus Ramli, the husband of our administrator, Rosnah Abdul Mutalib lead the doa and among others asked that Allah bless and protect us and the community around us, give us guidance and to make thing easy for us in this endeavour.

Our founder, Abdul Rehman Dakri then delivered a short speech expressing his thanks to all who had contributed and assisted us in running Rumah Aman, either in kind or cash for the past three years.

He said that work on Rumah Aman 2 will start in about a week from now and we will need continuous assistance from the public in making Rumah Aman 2 a reality. Presently Rumah Aman had collected about RM600,000.00 to build RumahAman 2.

Since the visit also fell on 12 Rabi’ul awal and to glorify the day of Maulid ur-Rasul, the boys recited some verses of the Quran, did Salawat Badriah, Asma Al-Husna and sang Ana Muslim.

Muhammad Redha Yaasin, 10, then recited the doa to end the function before everybody was served refreshments. By the time we finished, the rain had subsided and we went to visit the site.

Once we arrived at the site, the boys were excited seeing so much space around them and started to run around the site, moreover, the area is much bigger than the present Rumah Aman. We stayed there for about half an hour before we left for home.

Well Done Arif !

2009-03-23T16:11:00.008+08:00

Muhammad Arif Fauzi who is colour blind, made us proud when two of his colourful drawings entitled Rocket Malaysia and Waterfall won 2nd and 3rd prize respectively in an art competition organised by Amway Malaysia last year.

The art competition was held in conjunction with the establishment of a new One By One Art Gallery at Amway's headquarters in Ada, Michigan, USA in celebration of Amway’s 50th Anniversary this year.

Muhammad Arif’s Waterfall made it to the final selection with two other drawings out of the six Malaysian entries sent to Ada. The other two drawings are Village Atmosphere in the Morning by Munir Darussalam from Rumah Nur Salam, Kuala Lumpur and Blueberry by Uthaya Soorian,12, from Rumah Hope, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

In an article in its Amagram Magazine for March 2009, Amway Malaysia said that the three drawings will be displayed at the gallery along with 72 other artworks from other Amway affiliates worldwide.

It said that the gallery that will be open to Amway Distributors, staff and thousands of guest world wide for years to come, will consist of colourful, artistic drawings from children around the world who are part of Amway’s One By One Campaign for Children.

Amway Malaysia had organised a by-invitation only art competition to children homes that have participated in previous One By One – Happy Healthy Minds initiative. The competition was open to children between the ages of six to 12 years old registered at the homes.

A total of 38 colourful entries were received from Agathians Shelter, House of Joy, Precious Homes, Rumah Aman, Rumah Hope, Rumah Nur Salam and Rumah Tunas Harapan.

Ten year old Munir who won first prize in the competition received RM300.00 cash and made good use of his winnings by purchasing a sporty new pair of spectacles.

For his effort, Muhammad Arif, 9, won a monopoly set, a comprehensive art manual and art supplies.

Pictures from top : Muhammad Arif with Amway Senior Public Affairs Executive, Siti Kalsom Kamari (second from right), his gaurdians showing off his artworks and Amway Public Affairs Officer, Joanne Yap (left). Munir Darussalam's Village Atmosphere in the Morning, Muhammad Arif's Waterfall and Uthaya Soorias's Blueberry.

The three homes with the six shortlisted entries, Rumah Aman, Rumah Hope and Rumah Nur Salam were also awarded MPH book vouchers worth RM500.00 each.

Welcome Ikhwan, Ilyas, Ilyasaq

2009-02-28T10:15:00.007+08:00

On 1st February 2009, we welcomed Muhammad Ilyas bin Mohd Azmi and his twin brother Ilyasaq both six years old.

Prior to joining Rumah Aman, the twins lived with their mother and an elder sister in their grandmother's house in Batu Kurau, Perak. They have another older sister who is now being cared for by their auntie in Pahang. Their mother dry areca nuts for a living while the grandmother taps rubber.

When we fetched the boys they were very quiet during the four hours drive to Shah Alam but they have now made friends with the other boys in Rumah Aman and adjusting well.

We also welcomed Mohammad Ikhwan Shauqi bin Azwani Syam, six years old. He joined Rumah Aman on 22nd January 2009. Muhammad Ikhwan is an orphaned child who was living with his mother and a younger sister at their grandmother's flat near Putrajaya.

The younger sister who is now five years old has been placed at another orphanage, Rumah Amal Cahaya Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah (RACTAR) in Subang Jaya, Selangor. Their mother is presently unemployed.

We took in Mohammad Ikhwan, Muhammad Ilyas and Ilyasaq to fill in the four vacancies we had since October 2008.

With the enrollment of Muhammad Ikhwan, Muhammad Ilyas and Ilyasaq, there are now 29 boys in Rumah Aman. We hope to find another deserving child soon and fill our quota of 30 boys, insya-Allah.

From top left : Muhammad Ilyas, Ilyasaq and Ikhwan.

Goodbye Amsyar

2009-02-25T11:30:00.006+08:00

We bid farewell to Amirul Amsyar bin Kamarulzaman, 9 years old. He joined Rumah Aman in December 2005 when he was five years old. He left Rumah Aman on November, 2008 during the end year school holidays.

During his stay in Rumah Aman, Amirul Amsyar made good progress in his studies and had achieved very good results in his school examinations.

We are sad, but at the same time we are happy that his mother is now able to care for him, his brothers and sisters. We hope he will carry with him good memories of Rumah Aman and cherish the experience and exposure we had given him.

We are also very glad that Amirul Amsyar has been appointed as the class monitor at his new school. It is our hope that he will keep the discipline and values that we have inculcated in him and may he spread it among his brothers and sisters and also among his new friends in Hulu Langat, Selangor.

We hope he will visit us sometime when he is able and we pray that Allah will protect him and his family and may he be successful in all his endeavours.

Our Latest Additon

2008-10-22T17:20:00.008+08:00

On October 7, 2008, we welcomed Tuan Umarul bin Tuan Noor Azmi, 5, into the Rumah Aman's family. Tuan Umarul or fondly called Umarul,is the eldest of three in his family, the other two being his younger sisters who are four and three years old.

They lost their father in February 2007. Their mother now has to sell traditional Malay cakes at the nearby market place.They live with their grandparents in Shah Alam.

Umarul is now adjusting well in Rumah Aman.

Eid Mubarak

2008-10-06T14:25:00.004+08:00

Eid Mubarak or here in Malaysia,we say, Selamat Hari Raya Idul-fitri, maaf zahir dan batin.
This year all the children 'balik kampung' (went home to their hometown) and celebrated eid-ul fitr with their natural guardians.
Most of them left for home on September 27th 2008 and came back to Rumah Aman on October 5th as the school holidays came to an end. They started schooling on October 6th.

It has also been a joyful Ramadhan for us at Rumah Aman. Throughout the month we've been having our friends to contribute food for iftar and some joining us for iftar. We also accepted invitations for iftar outside Rumah Aman on two occasions.

To the following friends we thank you all, Jazakallahu Khayran.

1. Datin Nurul Huda

2. Tuan Hj. Jupri Mion
3. Reezal and Ema
4. Salma Dakri
5. Encik Salleh
6. Linda, Universiti Teknologi MARA
7. Glomac Berhad
8. Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Yayasan Harapan
9. Encik Yusof
10. Puan Faridah
11. Sharifah Shahira
12. MBSA
13. Management and Science University, Puan Raihan
14. Students from University Teknologi MARA
15. Servant of Allah
16. Puan Nurul
17. Puan Fatimah Zaharin binti Saidin
18. Datin Zalina and Datuk Manan
19. Puan Nina, Encik Fauzi and family
20. Puan Sabariah
21. Datin Jamiah
22. Raja Noorma and family

Ramadhan Mubarak

2008-09-09T12:56:00.008+08:00

Ramadhan Mubarak. The blessed month of Ramadhan is here again. All of us at Rumah Aman Shah Alam pray Allah bless our friends with good health and prosperity to perform all their ibadah during this blessed month. We thank you for your kindness and generosity.This Ramadhan is quieter for the children of Rumah Aman since we do not accept invitations for iftar to enable the staff to perform more ibadah.

However, we welcome the public to send food for the children to break fast.

A Meaningful Charity Campaign

2008-08-25T17:01:00.015+08:00

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!

2008-08-21T11:26:00.012+08:00

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

2008-08-18T10:51:00.002+08:00

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

2008-08-14T10:05:00.001+08:00

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

2008-08-12T11:00:00.001+08:00

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

2008-08-08T08:00:00.000+08:00

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

2008-08-04T09:00:00.002+08:00

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

2008-08-02T15:14:00.002+08:00

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.

Our Latest Addition

2008-07-31T11:00:00.000+08:00

On 1^st June 2008, we welcomed Aidil Afiat bin Yaziz, 4, into the Rumah Aman family. He is the younger brother of Mohamed Ikmal Rashid, 7, who has been with Rumah Aman for the past two years.

We took in Aidil Afiat to fill in one of the five vacancies we had. Since March 2008, five children were taken back by their mothers because the mothers are now financially independent and thus no longer eligible to receive zakat. All five are orphans - fathers have demised - so we hope to replace them with other more deserving orphans.

The five are twins, Zahiruddin and Zahirulhaq bin Amdan both 8 years old and three brothers, Muhamad Jauhari, 6, Ikmal,7 and Muhammad Izaat bin Junaidi, 8 years old.

Zahirudin and Zahirulhaq left Rumah Aman on 10^th of March. Their mother started a chicken farm about a year ago with the assistance of the Deparment of Agriculture

Malaysia

.

Besides reporting that the chicken farm is doing quite well, she also told us she may re-marry in a few months time, insya-Allah. She thought since her financial status is much better now, she should let other deserving children be placed at Rumah Aman.

The twins have an elder brother, an elder sister and a younger sister, all school going presently.

The mother of the three brothers took them in stages. She stook Jauhari on the 26^th of April and then took Ikmal and Muhammad Izzat on the 8^th of June. She said she is re-marrying and her future husband has requested her to take the children back as he can afford to care for them.

We wish the best to Zahiruddin, Zahirulhaq, Jauhari, Ikmal and Mohamad Izzat. We hope we have touched their lives as they have touched ours.We pray Allah give them good health and success in all of their endeavours.

Do remember us because we shall not forget you and do visit us sometime, we will receive you with open arms.

Magical Moments Cherished

2008-07-28T14:04:00.002+08:00

Magic shows are such fun and children love them. Though it boggles the mind and fools the eye, the curiosity of how the tricks are executed never fails to amaze both the young and old.

The magical moments were brought to Rumah Aman by our benefactor, The Truly Loving Company (TLC). TLC hosted the magic show performed by Sam Kwee on May 10, 2008 at Rumah Aman.

The children were also delighted when Sam invited some of them to perform magic tricks with him.

Those invited bravely stepped forward, however, we were unsure what motivated them. Was it because they wanted to be part of the performance, or they wanted to have a personal experience of how the tricks were done or the goodies that was distributed by Sam after each performance?

For us at Rumah Aman, it is a good sign as it shows that most of the children have acquired some self confidence and at the same time, keeping check on their good behaviour.

Also present were the CEO of TLC, Julia CF Chong, its director, Khaw Chay Tee, the TLC’s team members and TLC’s invited guests, Director of CIMB, Raja Noorma Othman, Director of Walden International, Ms. Chok Kwee Bee, Group General Manager of Media Prima, Ms. Shareen Ooi and CEO of Toplites, Mike Plascow.

April, May Birthday Boys

2008-07-25T22:25:00.000+08:00

The April and May birthday boys had a pleasant surprise.
Aunty Ros and teacher Ema Syarina who were April birthday girls and founder of Rumah Aman, Abdul Rehman Dakri and Ustaz Radzi who were May birthday boys, joined in the celebrations.

The April birthday boys were Rozaidi,8, Shahrul Nizam, 7, and Nazhim, 6. They May birthday boys were Roslan and Mohd Noramirul Shah, both eight year olds and Hafizuddin,7, were very excited when they saw the birthday cake being brought out from the kitchen.

Our senior teacher, Ustaz Radzi recited a doa for the birthday boys and for all present. The celebration was held in our dining hall during the lunch break. The birthday boys cut the cake and shared it with the others.

A portion of the cake was kept by the house mother for the older children who were in school then. They will have the taste of the cake during their tea time.

Abdul Rehman reminded the birthday boys that they are now a year older, therefore they must strife to change their life, improve on their behaviour for the better, to be more responsible and not forgetting to study harder.

The reminder is also for everyone present.

Rumah Aman Receives First Payout

2008-07-21T15:13:00.003+08:00

Rumah Aman received RM10,000.00 from its benefactor The Truly Loving Company (TLC) in the company’s first payout to its five charity partners in a simple ceremony held at TLC’s office in Kuala Lumpur on April 29, 2008.

The other four charity organisations that received the donation of equal amount was the Handicapped and Mentally Disabled Children Association, Johor Bahru, Hospis Malaysia, National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM) and Shelter Homes for Children.

Chief Executive Officer of TLC, Julia CF Chong said in her speech: “Although the company has yet to make any profits, we decided to make the donation to show our sincerity towards our charity partners.”

Prior to that, a video show on all five charity bodies were shown to all present which includes representatives of the five charity organisations, and invited guests.

TLC started with 15 personal care and household products when it entered into the market in March 2007. Presently it has 42 products which can be found in Carrefour, Cold Storage, The Store, Tesco and selected pharmacies.

TLC pledge all its profits to be turned into dividends which will then be distributed among its five charity partners so that it may help them receive a regular, sustainable and long term source of funds.

Thank you TLC for your contribution and to the users of TLC's products for your continous support which have made a dream realised.

High Tea With A Cause

2008-07-16T11:01:00.000+08:00

Our boys were guest performers at a high tea to launch a programme to assist widows from the poor to supplement their income with the hope that they will be able to empower themselves with the necessary entrepreneurial skills.

Our boys opened the event by reciting a doa, followed by a rendition of the Asma al-Husna (the 99 names of Allah), and ended their performance with an English song entitled The Wheel on the Bus.

The programme known as W2W an acronym for Women To Women was organised by Sense and Sensibility and was launched by the chairman of the Women Institute of Malaysia (WIM), Tan Sri Napsiah Omar.

The high tea was held at the Matrade building Kuala Lumpur, head office of the Ministry of International Trade on March 30, 2008 and was attended by about 300 guest.

Under the W2W programme, Sense and Sensibility will sponsor one time only, various hygiene and personal care products supplied by their participating partners worth RM1,000.00 to each widow who registers as a participating member of the programme.

The participating members will then sell these products and keep the profits. They will then be able to roll over the RM1,000.00 capital to replenish new stock of goods.

The participating members can also opt to individually request for a sponsored assistance amounting to RM1,000.00 to help them start their own small business near their home.

Members of the public are also welcomed to play their part as donors for the W2W programme as Sense and Sensibility is working closely with various orphanages to reach more needy widows to participate in the programme. For further information please call Zainoriah at +6012 6145 921 or Zainab at +6012 2100 541.

Sense and Sensibility later donated RM20,000.00 to Rumah Aman being proceeds raised through the selling of tables for the high tea.

We thank Sense and Sensibility for the contribution and pray Allah give success to the W2W programme.

Science Filled Fun Day

2008-07-08T15:30:00.021+08:00

The boys had a whale of a time at the Petronas Science Centre, popularly known as Petrosains situated at the Petronas Twin Tower, Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).

The study trip was organised by 14 students from the Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) on Saturday, March 22, 2008 as part of their course work in social responsibility entitled Sharing the Love, Cherish the Moment.

The children participated in many science games which were mind boggling but educative as well. Through a simulation machine, they also learnt how it felt flying in a helicopter.

The one thing that really caught their eye was a formula one (F1) car that was on display, Petronas being the main sponsor of the BMW Sauber F1 team.

It was a happy day. The children had a break from their daily routine and learned a few tricks to share with their friends at school.

Making Merry With Music

2008-07-03T16:30:00.011+08:00

The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) Education and Outreach body - Encounter - visited Rumah Aman on March 2, 2008 to entertain the children and staff with some beautiful music.

Encounter consists of personnel from MPO and Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP). They arrived early to set up buntings, other promotional items and the stage for accomplished double bass player, John Kennedy.

John sang a few English songs and also showcased his skills by performing instrumental pieces on his double bass and guitar playing, topping his performance singing the evergreen Malay folk song Rasa Sayang with the children and those present singing along.

One of the boys also came forward to sing a song to the delight of the audience.

Chick, Encounter's mascot also kept the children amused by its antics.

The visit is part of a community project, a joined effort between Encounter and Exxon Mobil for this year. Prior to visiting Rumah Aman, they visited and entertained 40 children at Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Rumah Pengasih – a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts - and the Down Syndrome Foundation in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Present were the CEO of Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Juniwati Rahmat Hussin who later with John presented goodies to the children.

Thank you Encounter for the music treat and also for the goodies. We hope you will entertain us again.

February Birthday Boys

2008-06-25T17:15:00.013+08:00

Four boys celebrated their birthdays in February. A simple celebration was held at Rumah Aman during lunch on the 29^th. day of that month.

Our senior teacher, Ustaz Radzi recited a doa for the boys before the cake was cut. Since some older boys were not in attendance because they were at school, the house mother kept their share to be relished during tea time.

The birthday boys who turned eight years old this year were Waqiuddin Junatal and the twins, Zahiruddin and Zahirulhaq Amdan while Mohamad Ikmal Rashid Yaziz turned seven.

Were they surprised to see Spiderman standing on their cake which was wrapped around a spider’s web. All four of them tried to take Spiderman for themselves but was told to wait until the cake is cut.

When the cake was cut and shared among the boys, you could see on their smiling faces that they were enjoying themselves. And what became of Spiderman? He was soon forgotten, but we will not forget Aunty Aisha Halim for baking the cake for us as a present. Thank you and may Allah bless you and your family.

Rumah Aman Hit by Flood

2008-06-19T11:34:00.001+08:00

Rumah Aman was submerged by over a metre of water on Friday, February 29, 2008. This is the sixth time the orphanage was hit by flood since it started operations in June 2005.

Water started rising after a heavy downpour for about an hour. There was nothing much the staff could do except to salvage whatever they can especially files in the office and books in classrooms. Furniture and electrical equipments were moved to higher places. All the children were also shooed upstairs.

Although Rumah Aman is situated in a low area, the situation is worsened because there is no outlet around the area, for water to flow out, even the lake opposite the road is filled up and the Damansara River which is about three kilometers away could not contain the volume of rain water.

After the rain subsided, the staff and some volunteers took four hours to bucket out the remaining water and clean the place finishing about 11.00 o'clock at night. This has been a recurring problem and the staff gets worried every time the sky turns dark...

Overwhelming Support at High Tea

2008-06-12T13:33:00.004+08:00

The Muslim Women Bureau of Kelab Golf Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah (KGSSAAS), Shah Alam organised a charity high tea in conjunction with
the Muharram 1429 Hijrah celebrations at Kelab Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

The event, held on Sunday, January 20, 2008 (11 Muharram 1429 H) received unexpected response therefore, the organiser had to request for additional tables to fit in 550 people. All 55 tables were sold out.

The children and staff of Rumah Aman attended the High Tea as invited guests and upon the request of the organiser, the children also took part in showcasing their talent.

The High Tea started with a doa from Muhammad Redha Yassin,9, followed by a short welcome and thank you note in English by Muhammad Izzat Junaidi, 8. Muhammad Firdan Rahmat, 9, then led his fellow “brothers” in reciting their daily doas in Arabic followed with an English translation.

The boys wrapped up their performance with a Malay song entitled Akrab Persabahatan (True Friendship) and an English song entitled The Wheel of the Bus to the delight of Yang Mulia, Tengku Puteri Arafiah Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah – sister to His Majesty, Sultan of Selangor and other contributors.

A video presentation on Rumah Aman and its activities was also shown followed by a graphic animation of Rumah Aman 2 building, scheduled to be built this year when enough funds have been raised, insya-Allah.

At the High Tea, a talk entitled Hijratur Rasul – Liku Perjalanan Insan Cemerlang (Hijratur Rasul – The Journey of an Excellent Man) was presented in an interactive manner with slide shows by Ustaz Dzulkarnaian Hamzah and Ustaz Haslin Baharin.

The Muslim Women Bureau of KGSSAAS managed to raise about RM30,000.00 from the High Tea, all of which were donated to Rumah Aman.

The children and the staff of Rumah Aman would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to the Muslim Women Bureau of KGSSAAS and also to the staff of Kelab Shah Alam who had done their best to ensure the evening was a success.

Radicare Gives Invaluable Contribution

2008-06-05T08:06:00.000+08:00

Rumah Aman received a notebook, an LCD projector and a 60 inch white screen from Radicare (M) Sdn. Bhd. which will help enhance the teaching aids for the

education of the children.

The contribution was handed over by the Chairman of Radicare, Dato’ Hj Abdul Latif Abdullah to the founder of Rumah Aman, Abdul Rehman Dakri in a simple ceremony held at Rumah Aman, Monday, January,14, 2008.

Present to witness the handing over were the directors of Radicare, Dato’ Ahmad Nazri Abdullah, Dato’ Dr. Mohd Shahari Ahmad Jabar, Dato’ Azmi Hj. Jaafar, Dato’ Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid and Mohamad Amin Md. Hashim and director of Rumah Aman, Ismail Ahmed Dakri.

Also present were the CEO of Radicare,Mohamed Rafique Merican, General Manager, Group Secretarial & Legal/Company Secretary,Nani Suryani Ahmad Tajudin and Executive, Group Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Siti Hajar Abdul Rahim.

Abdul Rehman in thanking Radicare for their contribution said Radicare had made known their intention to help Rumah Aman when they visited and did iftah together with the children at Rumah Aman last Ramadhan (Oktober 9, 2007).

“The gift we received today is the culmination of that good intention and may Allah reward Radicare, its directors and employees for this good deed and I hope Radicare will continue to support Rumah Aman especially in helping us build Rumah Aman 2 which we hope to start this year.”

Dato’ Haji Abdul Latif in his speech said that he hoped the multimedia kit will help expose the children to the importance of information computer technology (ICT) which is a necessary tool in this era of globalisation.

He also gave his personal undertaking to help gather funds for the building of Rumah Aman 2 and will continue to support Rumah Aman in what ever way the company is able.

Thank You Teacher Zira !

2008-05-28T17:30:00.006+08:00

On January 11, 2008 emotions ran high as we bid farewell to Noor Hazira Binti Yaakob, our senior educator who helped to shape the education curriculum and creative activities at Rumah Aman.

Fondly known as Teacher Zira by the staff and children, she served for almost three years and would have in her own words “…continue to serve the children..” if her hand was not asked in marriage and if she had not have to follow her husband to Terengganu – a state in the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia.

With tears freely flowing down her cheeks, teacher Zira asked for forgiveness from the children “dari hujung rambut ke hujung kaki” (from head to toe) if she had somehow mistreated them or scolded them or raised her voice in a manner which was unacceptable in the course of teaching and educating them.

In her farewell speech, she also thanked her fellow educators for their co-operation and hoped that they will continue to serve the children in the best of their ability for the pleasure of Allah. She also thanked them for sharing their knowledge and experience with her.

"The children have left a lasting impopresion on me and I will cherish the time I've spent at Rumah Aman," she said adding that she was very grateful that Rumah Aman gave her an opportunity to serve at a time when she was unemployed and was supporting three younger sisters.

Noor Hazira who hails from the northern state of Kedah, holds a Bachelor of Art and Design (Ceramics) from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor. She was an attachment teacher who taught at a primary public school before her contract expired in December 2004. She joined Rumah Aman in July 2005.

Founder of Rumah Aman, Abdul Rehman Dakri in his speech, recalled that Teacher Zira is the first official educator at Rumah Aman and thanked her for her unselfish contribution especially in educating the children to learn how to read, write and count besides instilling good manners in them.

He said Teacher Zira did not only confine her role as an educator but was always willing to help others when her help was needed and sometimes volunteered her services without being asked. She also stayed on after work holding night classes for the school going children and organised extra classes on weekends on her own accord to help those who were slow in their studies.

“You are a model teacher and I hope others will follow your footsteps,” he said, holding back his tears while adding that Rumah Aman was blessed to have Teacher Zira who helped look into the education aspects of the children.

Though we were sad of having to say goodbye to Teacher Zira but we were also happy for her. We wish her the best in her endeavours and may her marriage last a lifetime. May Allah bless her with many children and a serene and happy life.

Founder of Rumah Aman, Mehrunessa Dakri later presented Teacher Zira with a present from the Management of Rumah Aman, a certificate of appreciation from her fellow educators and a gift from the children to remember them by.

Teacher Zira,

Thank You from the bottom of our hearts. We will never forget you. We shall miss you dearly.

Fun Filled Sports Day

2008-05-23T11:26:00.000+08:00

The children of Rumah Aman showed their prowess in sports with all of them highly motivated and competitive in securing the first place in all nine games competed.

The event which was held at about 8.30 am on December 26, 2007 exposed the children to teamwork, comradeship, strategy, loyalty and above all honesty in winning.

The children were divided into six teams of seven to eight athletes including adults comprising teachers, child minders, housekeeping and the management staff.

Two talents from a production house, Piperace Sdn Bhd. were also incorporated into two of the six teams as guest athletes since they were shooting Rumah Aman’s sports day as part of a programme for the national television station, TV1.

Mr. and Mrs. Astaf Taj Ahmad, volunteers of Rumah Aman were referees and coordinators for all games competed.

The Red Team led by Abdul Rehman Dakri was crowned
winner of the games after collecting 35 points in total.

All teams received a hamper each and the contents which mainly consists of food, drinks, biscuits were devoured by the children immediately after the event which ended about 12.00 noon.

Rumah Aman Prize Giving Day

2008-05-21T14:04:00.017+08:00

It was a joyous occasion for the children and teachers of Rumah Aman on December 17, 2007 as it was testimony to the hard work put for the year.

This is the first prize giving day held by Rumah Aman since its inception in the year 2005.

Some of the children came up tops in their public school examinations and we hope all of them will keep up the good work and make their families at home proud.

The event started by a doa by Mohammad Redha Yassin, 8, and followed by a recital of verse 1 to 28 of Surah An-Nazi'at by Muhammad Asyraf Hakimi Zulabidin, 7, and a recital of verse 1 to 30 of Surah An-Naba’ by Razman Azrai Muhammad Halim, 6.

Mohamad Izaat Junaidi, 7, was placed 1^st. among the 30 children of Rumah Aman based on his excellent performance and consistency in studies throughout the year. He came out tops in his class of 34 students and 3^rd. among 257 students in Year 1 at Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda (SKRM), in Seksyen 4 Shah Alam.

In the 8 year old category, Raziq Hafizi Mohd Tamin was placed 1^st., Muhammad Firdan Rahmat placed 2^nd.and Mohammad Norfadhil Shah bin Mokhtar was placed 3^rd. in their respective classes. They were awarded for good performance in their examinations at SKRM and also at Rumah Aman.

The most improved student for the year 2007 was Muhammad Rizal, 7, who had shown a lot of improvement in his attitude and behaviour and has also impressed the teachers over improvements in his studies.

In the 7 year old category, Amirul Amsyar Kamarulzaman was placed 2^nd. and Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah Mokhtar was placed 3^rd.in their respective classes at SKRM while Razman Azrai was selected as the excellent pupil in the pre-schooler category.

All winners were presented with a plaque and a board game each .

At the end of the event, the children had lots of fun singing a Malay song entitled Akrab Persahabatan and an English song entitled The Wheel on the Bus. The way the children rendered the Malay song made some staff really touched and then they became very amused when the children sang the funny English song.

Pix 1 : Student and teachers of Rumah Aman.

Pix 2 : Razman Azrai reciting seriously Surah An- Naba'

Pix 3 : Raziq Hafizi reading a newspaper article written in Jawi - the Malay traditional script.

Pix 4 : Mehrunessa with Amirul Amsyar, proudly holding his prize.

From Our Friends in London

2008-01-17T12:31:00.000+08:00

Our friends in England held a charity event at Shahi Quila, the restaurant, in Blackburn. 300 guests attended the all-women dinner event, organised by Sofia Esa and Latifa Umar, which was held over 2 evenings from the 19th to the 20th of October 2007.

The fun-filled event which included a 4-course meal, a short DVD presentation about Rumah Aman, a fun quiz, a free raffle and an auction, was a great success and gave guests a good insight into Rumah Aman.

The organisers were very pleased to get great feedback from their guests. They wish to thank all the wonderful donors, sponsors and helpers, without whose help the event would not have been possible. Funds raised throughout the event amounted to £8,100.

To one and all, thank you for your continuous support. May Allah s.w.t bless you always.

Jazakallah.

Scholastic Excellence Awards for Our Boys

2007-11-14T07:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday (November 13) was a special day for all of us at Rumah Aman. A number of our boys received scholastic excellence awards during a ceremony held at Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda where we have 11 boys in Year 1 and 5 boys in Year 2.

Muhammad Izzat Bin Junaidi was 1st in his class of 34 students and 3rd among the 257 students in Year 1. Izzat also won 1st place in the Sentence Construction Competition for Year 1.

Zahirulhaq Bin Amdan won the subject prize in Science for being the best student in that subject for Year 1. He also won 1st place in the Arts & Craft Competition for Year 1.

Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah Bin Mokhtar won 1st prize in the Choir Competition for Year 1. Amirul was 5th in his class 36 students.

Raziq Hafizi Bin Mohd Tamin and Mohd Firdan Bin Rahmat, who are in the same Year 2 class, were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively. Firdan also won the Arts & Craft Competition for Year 2.

Mohammad Nor Fadhil Shah Bin Mokhtar was 3th in his Year 2 class of 32 students.

Izzat and Amirul have been appointed Junior Prefects for the 2008 school year (see previous post).

Well done boys and keep up the good work.

Our Boys Appointed Junior Prefects

2007-11-13T07:29:00.000+08:00

Mohamad Nor Amirul Shah Bin Mokhtar and Muhammad Izzat Bin Junaidi, two of our boys in Year 1 at Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda (Raja Muda Primary School), have been appointed Junior Prefects for the 2008 school year.

The selection and appointment of Prefects by the school are based on:

Good conduct, efficiency and trustworthiness,
Adherence to the rules and regulation of the school,
Ability to execute assigned tasks with responsibility and dedication,
Exemplary academic achievement and personality.

Both boys achieved excellent academic results with Izzat scoring 98.4% and Amirul scoring 96% average marks for all subjects.

Congratulations Izzat and Amirul. We are so proud of you.

Amateur Radio Enthusiasts Celebrate Eid with Rumah Aman

2007-11-06T07:43:00.000+08:00

There were lots of fun and laughter at Rumah Aman on 4^th November 2007 as the children, and adults, participated in various games and telematch organised by a group of Amateur Radio enthusiasts.

It was part of an Eid-ul-Fitri celebration hosted by the group who also brought along 24 boys and girls from Rumah Amal Limpahan Kasih, an orphanage from Puchong to join in the celebrations.

As usual, the children had the most fun and big smiles especially when they were well rewarded with various prizes after winning their games and telematches and entertained with a fun-filled magic show. They also sang along with a guest from Senegal who entertained them with songs. There was an array of delicious food, from mee rebus, roast lamb, murtabak to pizza and more.

Throughout the event Amateur Radio communications was also demonstrated to the children.

The celebration attracted over 100 members of Amateur Radio and their friends. It was an opportunity for them to learn more about Rumah Aman and its future plans.

Noah Foundation donated RM3,000.00 to Rumah Aman during the event.

Thank you Amateur Radio team and their friends for the food, prizes, toys, donations and most of all for their time in making the event a success. The children and staff of Rumah Aman enjoyed the event so much and hope you come and visit us again.

RM20,000 for Rumah Aman 2

2007-11-05T14:55:00.000+08:00

Our efforts to raise funds for the construction of Rumah Aman 2 (see posting in May) received a great boost last week when the Association of Pakistani Women in Malaysia presented a cheque for RM20,000.

The president of the association, Mrs. Shameem Faiz, presented the cheque to Brother Abdul Rehman Dakri, the founder of Rumah Aman, witnessed by the Deputy Higher Commissioner of Pakistan, Mr Jamshaid Iftikhar, and committee members of the association. The money was raised through a Food and Handicraft Charity Bazaar organised by the association on September 8, 2007 at Mont Kiara Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. Brother Abdul Rehman thanked the association for their most generous contribution.

At the ceremony, a model of Rumah Aman 2 was unveiled followed by a presentation and a briefing on the progress of the project.

The association was launched on April 3, 1998 with the primary objective of providing for the needs of women and children who are victims of violence and abuse, underprivileged childre n and the handicapped.

Eid Mubarak

2007-10-11T14:12:00.000+08:00

From all of us in Rumah Aman we wish you and your families

Eid Mubarak,
Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri,
Maaf Zahir Batin.

May Allah bless you and your families with good health, prosperity and happiness.

The banner says:

Eid Mubarak

Thank you to all who have helped

May Allah bless

Ramadhan at Rumah Aman

2007-10-11T12:55:00.000+08:00

This has indeed been a very busy Ramadhan for us at Rumah Aman. Throughout the month we have been having our friends joining us for iftar and on 3 occasions the boys were invited for iftar outside Rumah Aman.

To the following friends who joined us or invited us for iftar, Jazakallahu Khayran.

1. Rosnah & Jamalus
2. Nina & Fauzi
3. Khalid & Friends
4. Servant of Allah
5. Abdul Rehman Dakri & Mehrunissa Dakri
6. Aunti Hani
7. Puan Sarah
8. Puan Zabariah Habib Mohd. & Encik Ahmad Sathali
9. Mrs. Yazmin
10. Students from Universiti Teknologi MARA
11. Glomac Berhad
12. Students from Faculty of Office Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA
13. McDonald's, Section 3 , Shah Alam
14. Hot F.M
15. Students from Landscape Dept., Universiti Teknologi MARA
16. Children, parents and teachers from Blooming Tots
17. Encik Salleh
18. Ladies of Surau Raudhah Al Muttaqin, Section 4, Shah Alam
19. Pakistani Women Association
20. Nurul
21. Shirazdeen & Friends
22. Students and teachers from MARA Junior Science College, Kuala Klawang
23. Puan Hasni & Family
24. Readycare Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
25. Mrs. Salma (London)
26. Ustaz Omar, Pine 38 Cafe, Shah Alam

Ramadhan Mubarak

2007-09-13T13:28:00.000+08:00

Ramadhan Mubarak. The blessed month of Ramadhan is here again. All of us at Rumah Aman Shah Alam pray for Allah to bless our friends with good health and prosperity to perform all their ibadah during this blessed month. We thank you for your kindness and generosity.

Visit by Khalifah Model School

2007-07-23T07:19:00.000+08:00

Yesterday (Sunday July 22, 2007) our boys played hosts to students, teachers and parents of Khalifah Model School (KMS), Ampang, Selangor.

After a short welcome speech from Brother Abdul Rehman Dakri, the day's program started with the visiting students singing their school song followed by a choral speaking presentation and a taekwando demonstration.

After a story telling session the children were divided into groups to work on creating their elephant masks. Initial shyness quickly turned into friendly chatter and the children produced some really fine masks.

After lunch and dzuhur prayers, the boys were presented with gifts from the parents of students of KMS and Brother Abdul Rehman accepted a personal computer, some books and games and a cheque from the principal of KMS.

We do hope our visitors had as nice a time as our boys and we pray that Allah bestow His blessings on the students, parents and teachers of KMS.

Gallery

Boys at a Wedding

2007-07-19T15:37:00.000+08:00

July 7, 2007 was a special day for the boys...they were invited to a wedding! It was a special day for Puan Jamiah, who was a former Housemother at Rumah Aman, and Encik Khalijan too of course.

The boys, all excited and resplendent in their Baju Melayu, and staff boarded a bus for Kuala Selangor where the wedding was held.

We wish Puan Jamiah and Encik Khalijan "Semoga berbahagia hingga ke anak cucu" (May you be blessed with happiness until you have children and grandchildren).

We must also say a big "Thank you" to Dataran Pintar Travel & Tours Sdn. Bhd. of Bandar Baru Sg. Buloh for their generosity in providing the bus.

Taekwondo Class for Our Boys

2007-07-19T14:14:00.000+08:00

Our boys have just started their taekwondo lessons under the guidance of Encik Mohamad Najib Bin Nawawei. Classes are held on Sunday afternoons and we thank Encik Mohamad Najib for volunteering his time.

Now all the boys need are those smart taekwondo uniforms.

Our Newly Renovated Kitchen & Dining Area

2007-07-19T13:26:00.000+08:00

We are pleased to announce that the renovation to our kitchen and dining area which was started in early June (see posting in June) has been completed.

Together with the new furniture, the boys now have a more comfortable and brighter place to have their meals and the staff a more pleasant place to prepare them.

Colouring Contest at Kelab Shah Alam

2007-06-21T18:31:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday (June 17), our boys were invited to participate in a colouring contest organised by Kelab Shah Alam (Shah Alam Club). The contest was held in conjunction with the club's 'Parents Day' celebration.

The boys were up bright and early that morning and by the time they arrived at the club, everyone was excited and ready to go. After lunch and ice cream, the results were announced and our boys (Ariff - 1st, Izzat - 2nd and Amirul - 3rd) won the top 3 places. Ariff's effort was all the more impressive because his left arm was in a cast.

Well done boys!