Thursday, March 1, 2012

Winning a dream travel destination

How would you like to travel to the place of your dream? For many single parents and their kids, travel is a luxury they can least afford, yet most times it is the very thing they need to help them get over their depression, forget their financial woes and a time to re-energise.

Well this is exactly what a local television show, has realized is needed and it’s gone about introducing a TV programme to help many a disadvantaged youngster to get their travel wish fulfilled. The new programme is akin to the “Make A Wish”programme where terminally ill children express their heart’s desire and it is fulfilled by wellwishers who chip in to make the kid’s dream come true.

The difference in this 26 episode TV programme is that this wish fulfillment is targeted at kids who will be around a long time to remember this experience and it is hoped that the experience will further inspire them to make successes of themselves in the future.

However, to get into the programme, kids of single poor parents between the ages of 7 to 14 years must write in and share where they want to travel, within Malaysia, and what it is they want to see, do or experience and then they are also to share about their family background so the judges can get a feel of why they deserve to have their travel wish fulfilled.

Parents Without Partners began the search for the families keen to participate in this programme and we are kicking off with four families, a single mother of four kids, another single mother of two, one with 3 kids and a mute couple with a daughter aged 7years. Thus far, the single mum with four kids saw her youngest writing about how keen he was to travel to Pulau Tioman because he wants to see all the animals in the animal sanctuary, the corals & fishes, the rocks, cliffs and pebbles etc and all because he hopes to be a geologist or a vet someday.

The single mother of two had her son to write about how he had to cope with an alcoholic and abusive father who finally walked out on them forever and how they had never had a holiday trip in their life except to visit the grandmother in Perlis. The boy now wants to visit Sarawak to live in a long house, see a cockfight, watch native dancing and visit the Cat Museum in Kucing.

The other single mum of three boys wrote about how they escaped from an abusive family background to carve a life for themselves despite the little she earned but now the kids are living in a more peaceful and restful environment and a trip to Sabah would be the ultimate reward for their tough fight for survival. It will be a challenge to get the mute couple to articulate their dream destination but watch this space. Of the two appeal letters already sent in, the Pulau Tioman applicant was judged the winner because his family history was a real tear jerker one that if it can be re-counted on TV will surely tug at your heart strings….at any rate, he will soon be on his way to Pulau Tioman so do watch out for more news on this marvelously lovely TV programme.