Rumble on Jumble (Station)

JS enters the Dragon Year with Jaya One

2012-02-05T22:04:00.004+08:00

Jaya One shopping outlet recently held its Chinese New Year celebratory dinner to usher in the year of the Dragon. The management was kind enough to invite some of the single parents from Parents Without Partners and JS co-founders and staff to participate in this special event which was held on February 2. PWP co-founder Sanice was happy to bring along single mum Suhaibah, single dad Ong Pang Seng, deaf and dumb Yeong Fong Pheng, Mala, and volunteers Joyce and others who agreed to help out for that day’s festive activities.

For a start, PWP was given a table to hold its promotional activities which included the sale of handmade crafts and the giving out of JS postcards for many of the retailers and customers who may have not been aware of PWP&JS role in assisting poor single parents of the Klang Valley region.

Among the crafts were dolls dressed up in specially designed costumes depicting the Baba Nyonya cultural heritage as well as recycled items made out in the shape of a train among other items. The single parents and JS volunteers were also treated to a sumptuous “loh sang” dinner where the 1Malaysia spirit was clearly obvious in the willingness of all races to just raise their chopsticks and the accompanying ingredients high enough to welcome in a newer and more prosperous year ahead.

Of course it would have been lovely if the VVIPs were encouraged to visit our stall, at least to learn more about what PWP&JS aspirations and plans were but ah well, perhaps there will be another time when we can be given the opportunity to actually share with the rich and the privileged how they can assist the poor single parents by donating the items they don’t need at home or in their offices. If that can be done, our task of making life so much better for the marginalised poor single parents will be made far, far easier and life will be so much more comfortable for them in the near future.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2 ALL

2012-01-22T23:10:00.002+08:00

The Dragon has arrived and here's our little CNY card to wish everyone the very best for the Lunar Year 2012.

Welcoming the NEW YEAR... 2012!

2011-12-29T16:09:00.004+08:00

Say hello to 2012 - a new year, a fresh start, a lovely chance to do more, do better and make a greater impact on the single parents community in Malaysia. Jumble Station and PWP Bhd takes this marvellous opportunity to say a very big and heartfelt THANK YOU to all our friends, fans and supporters for their unstinting cooperation and support over the last 41/2 years and as we move into our crucial 5th year of existence, we sincerely hope that we can together with all others, be there in a real sense for single parents in need and be the motivational factor for the success o their children's efforts to break out of the cycle of poverty that has gripped their families all these years. With your continued linkages, we can move mountains to reach each family, one problem at a time. So HAPPY 2012 to all and BLESS YOU for your friendship and love....from the three co-founders: Lim Lian See, Mary Anne Tan and Sanice Kam.

Graduates of Sewing Station

2011-12-27T08:27:00.001+08:00

It has been 4 months of gruelling training – every Tuesday and Thursday nights – the students have been faithfully turning up at the Sewing Station at PJ Old Town to master the intricate art of sewing and fashion designing.

The students – Mala a mother of three kids, Yeong Fong Peng a deaf mute, Suhaibah a single mother of three, Carol a businesswoman and Joyce a housewife – all successfully completed their basic training in sewing and fashion designing just prior to Christmas.

To celebrate this momentous milestone, the class of 2011 (the inaugural batch) decided to throw a small graduation party and come dressed in the baju kurung that they had sewn for themselves. And to make the occasion even more special, Jumble Station’s co-founder Sanice was specially invited to grace this very special event.

For Jumble Station, this event marks a new milestone in our efforts to assist poor single parents and poor families wanting to improve their livelihood. For many of these students, the ability to sew a dress and to master the skills of fashion designing will enable them to earn extra money to feed their families or help them to start a home-based business by itself.

As for Adrian, the single father and ex-fashion designer, this graduation of the first batch of students is momentous in that it marks the first time ever he has been able to teach anyone his special skills and to be able to teach those who are illiterate to this stage is an achievement in itself.

Anyone interested in joining his class can contact Jumble Station at 016-2202958

Sporty trip of a lifetime for JS/PWP’s poor kids

2011-12-18T19:27:00.009+08:00

Cars, bikes and planes are every child’s idea of great toys but the pleasure is tripled when the toys are really big men..er.. rich men’s toys, so to get a chance to ride in one of these vehicles is always an opportunity not to be missed.

Well Parents Without Partners Bhd (PWP) was asked to send some children of single parents and kids from disadvantaged families to participate in the Royal Selangor Club's (RSC) annual motorsports carnival and charity drive held recently.

PWP co-founder Sanice Kam with some 18 children in tow turned up at the Dataran Merdeka where they were greeted by more than 80 vintage, classic, super fast cars and superbikes put on display specially for this occasion. Around 15 of them were also the more ultra-modern, fast cars, such as the Lamborghini and the Ferrari as well as around 15 Harley-Davidson motorcycles for the youngsters to gape in awe and wonder. In the vintage and classic cars category includes a 1965 MG GT and a Citroen 2CV.
According to the RSC Motor Sports Section’s organising chairman, Mr R. Shanmugam, this is the RSC’s 5th time organising such an event for the under privileged kids as part of the club’s contribution to society, only this time, they did it with the strong support of the Blue Jacket Club members as well.

The kids on their part had a whale of a time and their thrill of a life time had to have been the long leisurely drive from the innermost city of KL out to the fascinating Sungai Besi RMAF Musuem where aerial displays of vintage planes and pre-war aeroplanes as well as some sleek looking helicopters made it a truly fun outing for all.

Topping off the trip was a cheque for RM2,000 given to PWP by the RSC aimed at helping the charitable organisation with its efforts to assist poor single parents and their kids in the coming months. To the RSC Motor Sports Section and the Blue Jackets Club, a very big “Thank You” for your kindness and generosity to the needy single parents under PWP’s care and concern.

financial tips for single parents

2011-12-03T14:52:00.002+08:00

Parents have the hardest job in the world, and those who do it alone truly deserve a medal. An added challenge of single parenting is handling the finances. Living on only one income makes budgeting, and saving for your little ones' future even more difficult. The good news is that you're not alone and financial freedom is closer than you think.

Here are some financial tips for single parents.

1.Talk to your kids about money
If your children are old enough to understand the value of money, then it may be in your best interest to talk to them about it. Airing out the family's financial situation can give kids a better idea of where money comes from and where it goes. Opening this line of communication between you and your kids may foster a better understanding of spending, budgeting, and saving so that they can contribute to the family nest one day.
2.Track your spending
As a single parent, you have to be even more cautious of your spending and how it impacts your family. Single parents are advised to track their spending by keeping a written or digital ledger of their purchases. Once you know how much you're spending and where it's going, you can better budget your money and start investing wisely.
3.Save on child care
Child care is expensive, and some single parents simply don't want the added costs. If you're not going to get child care, then you're going to have to make some adjustments to make it work. First, ask family and friends if they can watch your children while you're at work. If this doesn't work, then you may need to change your work schedule, or split the duties with a trusted child care provider to cut the costs in half.
4.Manage and stay out of debt
The last thing you need to compound your financial troubles is getting into debt. Living on one income is most certainly tough, but single parents have to make wise financial decisions to avoid falling into debt. If you're already in debt, take care of this problem right away. This may mean taking on another job to pay off your current debt, or resorting to debt consolidation or debt settlement.

5.Save for retirement
Don't forget about yourself! Single parents should continue to save for retirement so they have enough money to live on when they stop working. Even if you're a young parent, it's never too early to start setting money aside for retirement and planning for your future. Parents who live on a limited income are advised to put more money into retirement and emergency funds than in college savings because their children will likely qualify for financial aid and scholarships. There's no such thing for retirees.
6.Save for your kids' college education
Saving for college is difficult for anyone, especially if you're a single parent. You may not be able to save enough to pay for their entire schooling, but every little bit counts. The earlier you can start setting money aside for college, the more you'll be able to help them out. Depending on your family income, your children may qualify for financial aid, scholarships, and work study programs that make college much more attainable.
7.Find free things to do
There are plenty of fun activities to do with your children that don't cost a sen. Single parents should partake in free activities like going to the park, attending museums during free hours, camping out in the backyard, and playing board games at home. Not only are these activities cost-effective, but they are fun for the whole family.
8.Live within your means
Although many people do not live within their means, it is crucial for single parents to do so. Living within your means is very doable, but it certainly requires a great deal of discipline. If you can no longer afford your car payments or your mortgage is becoming a major financial burden, then it may be time to downgrade to a less expensive car or move into a more affordable apartment. Just as you teach your children the difference between needs and wants, you have to explore the same question when it comes to living within your means.
9.Create an emergency fund
Parents know that accidents happen, but not everyone is prepared for the costs that come from these unexpected events. One of the best ways to protect your family from being completely wiped out in an emergency is to create an emergency fund. Although this amount varies from person to person, single parents should try to save as much as they possible can because they are supporting themselves and their children. When creating your emergency fund, consider different emergency scenarios and how much they would cost and give some thought to your job security. But most importantly, don't touch that emergency fund unless it's a real emergency.

The above information is sourced from: http://www.onlinedegree.net/10-financial-tips-for-single-parents

Sampling the sumptuousness of the Summit Hotel

2011-11-03T21:22:00.005+08:00

Hotels are nothing new to most of us adults, after all we’ve visited many and stayed in a number of them too but for the marginalised groups, meaning the poorer folks, hotels remain a mystery.

Summit Hotel at Subang Jaya realised this possibility and chose to open its doors to some children of poor single parents and the under privileged groups recently to celebrate the Festival of Lights better known as Deepavali. Two organisations, Rumah Kids and Parents Without Partners (PWP) Bhd were invited to have their youngsters come over for a afternoon outing and high tea.

PWP responded by sending over 10 year old Karthik, sisters Fa’in and Fazlin, 10 and 9 years old respectively, Teo Hui Min, 7 and her mother Yeong Fong Pheng who is a deaf mute while Rumah Kids sent around 10 teenagers.

First thing that got PWP kids really excited was the plunge into the swimming pool which was kept exclusively open for their use. Group General Manager of Summit Hotels and Resorts Mr Lam Hin Choon himself personally welcomed the youngsters to the hotel and took time to take photos with the kids at the hotel’s pool side.
After much splashings and friendly dunkings, the youngsters clamoured to have a look at one of the hotel rooms because almost all of PWP’s kids hade never seen a hotel room before.

Karthik when asked which part of the room he liked best said he loved the bathroom because it had a “kolam” i.e. a bath tub which meant he could soak in and swim for as long as he wanted if ever he got to stay in the hotel room. The younger kids were more fascinated by the bedside controls for the TV set which happened to feature a cartoon show such that the kids were reluctant to have the TV switched off.

The beautifully laid out buffet meal which comprised the high tea for the kids were an awesome treat for them and many didn’t know exactly where to start in terms of piling up their plates but eventually they settled for a plateful of their choice food and going again for other choices. Dessert was another dilemmas they pondered over the cakes, fruits or ice-cream choices but all food went out of their minds when a magician magically turned up with many tricks up his sleeve.

All of PWP kids were mesmerised and astounded with the ease with which the magician made his cards appear and disappear, the drinks vanish without a trace or the fork to bend with seemingly effortless ease. One kid who aimed to be a pilot immediately announced he’s rather be a magician but was persuaded that he should pursue his pilot dream and master magic as a hobby! The special day was topped off by a group photo for memory's sake and Mr Lam’s generosity in giving Deepavali ang pow packets to each child just prior to waving the happy and contented kids off for home in the hotel’s very own van. You can bet PWP kids will be more than happy to trek back to the Summit Hotel should the staff send another invitation!

Taylors Uni volunteers get a feel for JS work

2011-10-03T18:58:00.006+08:00

Volunteers can play an important role in any charity initiative and JS welcomes volunteers seeing that we have so few thus far. Of course being relatively new would account for the fact that not many organisations, colleges or universities would have heard of JS despite us being around for some 4 years now.

So it was a pleasant surprise when six enthusiastic youths from Taylor’s University opted to assist Parents Without Partners with its reaching out efforts to poor single parents while doing their bit for their moral education course.

Nichole who happens to be my ex-colleague from the Edge Ooi’s daughter brought along five of her uni mates and together we spent two days of going around to see what a day in the life of a JS volunteer was like.

First off we introduced them to JS activities from sorting to collection of donated items, donating groceries to deserving poor single parents, dragging unwanted items to the recycle centres, visiting the homework centre at Brilliant Light which was funded by The Edge’s Rat Race event last year and taking the youngsters there through a simple photography course for the day.

Armed with a small digital camera each, the volunteers took between 2 to 3 kids in hand and taught them the rudiments of taking photos of still life in the form of stuffed toys which had been prepared beforehand. The children were excited to learn a new skill and learnt via comparison how to be a better photographer.

On Sunday, the six volunteers turned up early at 9am at the Amcorp Mall to assist in the sale of collectibles and decorative items which is aimed at raising additional funds for JS works. They learnt that it takes skills to be a good sales promoter, that there is value in even the most mundane of items. At the end of the two day volunteering events, the youths have gained a greater appreciation of what it entails to successfully run a charitable organisation. Hopefully it will have inspired them to want to assist the poor in a more practical and heartfelt manner than ever before!

Suffering a loss

2011-09-13T07:41:00.003+08:00

Many single parents are scarred by the loss of their spouse, whether through death or abandonment. For some, the psychological damage runs very deep, extends for years and appears seemingly irreversible while others are hurt for a while and then bounce off the experience to emerge stronger.

Some of us, never having experienced such a severe loss, find that it’s a little hard to fully comprehend the pain and anguish they are going through and we can’t begin to understand their fragile psyche until we literally start to “walk in their shoes”.

Yours truly got a little glimpse of the dark void of “suffering a loss” that many single parents go through when four young robbers pounced on me, put a knife to my neck and took away my waist pouch in 10mins flat just before Hari Raya!

The pouch held my personal items, JS and my cash, a digital camera and a bunch of keys, admittedly nothing much but the nuisance and inconvenience of having to replace the lost items has now made me more paranoid about the issue of safety. Now I tend to be more conscious of locking my car doors as soon as I get into the car, I’ll look around carefully first before getting out of the car and arm myself with a bat if I have to stand outside a house for any length of time.

The sense of outrage still burns within me, the anger at losing personal items to ruthless, worthless robbers still simmers, the fact that I should be grateful no physical harm came to me is often times more overlooked than remembered as I continually nurse a grudge against the thieving louts. Like the scarred single parents JS is helping, I couldn’t let go of the painful past!

Then something happened to renew my faith in humankind. A JS supporter learnt of what had happened and went out to buy JS a brand new digital camera to replace the one that was lost – the gesture was so unexpected, so spontaneous it considerably erased the pain and brought home one single, penetrative truth – bad things happen but we don’t have to be dragged down by it, we don't have to stay in its destructive grip, we need to move on and continue to do what we do best - make this world a better place for all.

Yes and how much more lovelier it can and will be, if we actively seek and choose to see only the beautiful side of life rather then to wallow in pain and perpetually nurse a lifetime of anguished “loss”...

Yours truly has now started using the digital camera to do just that – capture the joys of life and loves so that scarred single parents can also get out from the dark void that has held them captive for so long.

JS first photo – a pix of one of our single mother cats – all pregnant cats become single mums right? – newborn kitties – 3 of them, so small, so marvellously cute - a symbol of a fresh new look, a fresh new beginning awesome!

Filling up an empty flat

2011-09-01T10:31:00.004+08:00

Some people have wondered what does Jumble Station do with the items that people donate? First off, we give them to single parents in need of them and here’s one classic example.

Single parent Saras has five kids – four girls and a boy. The two older girls are teenagers 16 and 14 while the other girl is 10 and the boy is 8years old. The baby of the lot is Sarah Angeline who is only 3months old, the result of this single mother’s hope for a second, better relationship but the worthless father of this baby scooted off as soon as she was conceived!

Saras and her three girls (the 10 year old and the boy were sent to live in a home) had been living in Puchong with her sister but her sister tired of them and moved out to an undisclosed location forcing them to move to a cheap flat in Angsana where Jumble Station is located.

The flat on the 10th floor is bare except for a dirty looking comforter that doubles as a mattress for all of them at night, a table for dining and a table to hold their meager amount of clothes. Jumble Station promptly sent them a newly serviced fridge, a washing machine, a single bed and mattress, a TV and stand fan, a personal computer complete with monitor, keyboard, PC table, dining chairs, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, rice cooker, kettle, blender, toys and baby items including clothes for baby Sarah Angeline.

Saras who has been struggling on her RM800 salary to pay for rent, food and clothes for her children ever since her hubby abandoned the family could not believe that she could get these household items for free when she moved into the flat on August 20th.

JS doesn’t just equip the flat, we also looked into the issue of ensuring the youngsters are gainfully involved in activities beneficial to the family and for that we’ve connected the youngsters (they start in their new school only in January next year) with a businessman who is willing to pay them RM25 a day for volunteering to paste labels on his products. With this income coming in, at least the family should be a little more comfortable until Saras can get a better paying job or her boss raises her salary to enable her to support her growing family.

This family still need other household items such as a sofa set etc, cupboards, DVD player etc but we will send these to them as soon as JS receives them from the donors.

In the meantime, JS also needs more clothes, decorative items (ceramics, gifts, paintings etc) collectibles (stamps, badges, comics, watches, coca cola etc), cameras (film and digital) toys, costume jewellery, music CDs, DVDs etc to fill its table for its weekend flea market sales at Amcorp Mall in order to raise more funds for our work with poor single parents so if you know of anyone with stuff to let go call or SMS 016-2202958 Anne for collection.

CSR with a difference!

2011-08-02T11:33:00.008+08:00

Many organizations want to do something for charity and that's good for Parents Without Partners (PWP) and Jumble Station but what we always strive for, is to do things a little differently from the norm. So when newcomer airline Oman Air first came to us saying they wanted to offer free trips for the poor single parents kids to Oman, we decided we’d do something far more radical then just have them all take the free trip.

We kicked off the programme by organizing an essay and art competition specially for our single parents kids and we had them in various locations, sitting in one single mum’s flat to do the essay or the art competition. Typically most of the participants aged from 11years to 20years, chose to draw rather than write and the winners turned out to be four candidates – Robin, Sujatha, Jilianna and Mary Anne Letricia. Since only 3 winners from each race could be picked, we had to decide between Sujatha and Letricia but the decision was made when Letricia failed to turn up for the face to face interview with Oman Air’s manager for KL, Kathleen Leong.

On June 6-10th, the three winners accompanied by Integrity PR’s Jennifer Nelson and her assistant Tengku Shireen and Mary Anne as vice president of PWP flew off to Oman where a very warm hospitality awaited us. Once there, PWP began to teach the youngsters how to take photographs of Oman scenery and activities the way a photo journalist would. Armed with small Lumix digital cameras donated by JS supporters, the three newbie photographers went about clicking and recording their experiences and every night reviewing their efforts.

Step by step they were taught the rudiments of what makes a good picture and urged to look at things from the perspective of a photo journalist because aside from taking photos, the youths were also encouraged to interview their tour guides and host Ghazan so that each photo would have a story to tell.

Of course it wasn’t an easy transition to go from gawking tourist to avid photo journalists but the youths went through the process pretty well and when they returned, they were urged to work on their travel journal, slide presentation as well as a travel essay. On July 28, the trio presented their efforts to the local press, they stood up before a panel of four to five press folks and wowed them over with their interesting photos. For the three 1Malaysia youths, it was their first time with the media and they handled them pretty well too. PWP asked the media people for their feedback on the youths’ efforts and the response was that the kids obviously enjoyed the experience, they were still so vibrantly enthusiastic about the experience and they were remarkably talented! For PWP, it was a satisfying experiment in carrying out the adage that “it is better to teach the children to fish than to give them just fish to eat!”.

What have we imparted to the kids? We’ve taught them new skills – writing and photography so that should they want to, they can develop such skills further to help improve their employable skills someday. They have also learnt to expand their horizons, having seen that there is a whole new world out there for themselves and that all that stands between them and success is the ability to go beyond their current impoverished state. For the single parents, it was also an eye opening period because now they saw first hand, how talented their kids are and all that’s needed is to give them the encouragement they need to advance further in life. This is truly CSR with a real and vital difference!

JS featured in July issue of Her World

2011-07-15T10:05:00.005+08:00

It’s funny how publicity comes when you least expect it…hmmm? Jumble Station had gone to a house belonging to Fanny Bucheli to get the items she wanted to donate for our single parents cause and it turns out she’s a writer with this very esteemed publication Her World!

Unaware of this at that time, she had queried me on what we would do with the toys and other stuff she was giving us and when I told her that some would be given away free to poor single parents and the rest sold to low cost flat dwellers and the money used to assist single parents, she was very excited and said she’d like to write about what we’re doing for this special group.

Of course I had no objections since all kinds of promotions are good for our cause which is still relatively unknown to a majority of people. Being an ex-journalist myself I am very wary of utilizing my journalistic contacts and network to gain exposure for JS for fear of abusing the connections and putting friends in a fix but if someone stumbles on us and wants to write about us, ah, that’s a different story altogether right?

So here’s the printed copy and if you want to read the interesting piece, just go get the July issue and read it all – nice piece complete with rare pix of all three of us all dolled and made up too ha ha! After reading, do please donate the magazine to JS, we'd be happy to have it for our record (smile)!

Our Funny Fourth Party

2011-06-22T01:27:00.006+08:00

We just had our single parents party – our 4th actually – and it was really funny occasion for many of our poor single parents who turned up at Dream Centre in Petaling Jaya where the event was held. Some 60 single mothers and two single dads together with 200 children were on hand to play games, sing songs and laugh out loud with the others of like mind.

Interesting games such as the tissue thin game, the ball toss, the sticker hunt all had the kids and their parents hunting determinedly for a prize or two. 10 members of the Malaysian Association for the Blind then gave a lively rendition of country line dancing and proceeded to display their fancy footwork that one may find it hard to believe they’re unable to see at all.

Next Godfrey and his female counterpart serenaded the audience with old songs including Hank William’s Jambalaya and finished it off with Donny and Marie Osmond’s famous duet “I’m a little bit country, And I’m a little bit rock & roll!

However the one act that had everyone in stitches and rolling with riotous laughter was Pastor Ravi , pastor of the Indian members who together with his faithful companion the cheeky puppet had ensured a rollicking good time for all. The two verbally jousted and sparred with smart talk and wise cracks, it made the puppet seem so human like indeed.

When the show was over, each single parent was given a goodie bag filled with a number of donated items such as KFC vouchers and a prize each donated by GDEX, the local courier company while their kids were given an opportunity to choose which beanie baby toy they preferred and were also given several bottles of multivitamins from Hovid to build up their strength and their overall health. The single parents then topped off the evening with a hearty meal of Indian chicken curry and briyani rice, sambal with samosas and eggs. All in all, it was a deeply satisfying party for all concerned except that this time, we had omitted the lucky draw aspect which had many asking about it after all!

Jumble Station's success story on BFM

2011-06-15T11:05:00.003+08:00

Guess what folks.. Jumble Station was on BFM recently where single father Adrian was being interviewed about his 2nd start in business and he credits it to Jumble Station's help. JS was invited by Meera the producer of the Bigger Picture programme to share about how we help single parents and how Adrian got back on the road to business success. You can listen to the podcast of the interview and hear for yourself what was discussed...just click on this link http://bfm.my/jumble-station
and happy listening!

Dinos Alive!

2011-06-02T08:40:00.008+08:00

Talk about dinosaurs and the kids surely do come alive indeed. Recently PWP was invited by the Lioness of Subang Jaya to bring along 15 children of single parents for the Dinos Alive exhibition at the National Science Centre at Bukit Kiara. The 15 children soon ballooned to 20 and by the time we actually got on the chartered school bus, there were 30 of us, all from angsana at USJ1.

Arriving at the Science Centre we found ourselves one of hundreds of kids, all of whom had taken the start of the one week May school holidays as a chance to educate themselves about all things scientific and marvel at the giant prehistoric monsters! Ensuring our 29 youngsters stayed together at all times was a near impossibility and on the three occasions when we lost a kid or two, it was literally like looking for a needle in a hay stack or an ikan bilis in an ocean!

Despite that the outing was a huge success for the tiny tots, with the youngest Hakimi and his new best friend Hui Min awe struck by the magnitude of their Jurrassic pals. Funnily enough they weren’t in the least bit intimidated by the sheer size of the monsters but some other older kids were terrified by the sounds and life like movements of the dinos with one or two loudly refusing to enter the pseudo cave or jungle habitat.

A hearty chicken rice meal topped off the afternoon followed soon after by the youngsters giddily playing at the nearby playground, slipping, sliding and racing each other up and down some slides, crazily spinning the merry-go-round till they flopped down in a dizzy spell themselves or swinging like veritable tarzans on the four swings available at the park. All in all, the kids had a wonderfully refreshing time and wanted to know when the next “outing” would be so that they could be invited again. Thanks Lionesses of Subang for making this holiday season so special for our single parents and poor folks kids… keep up the good work.

Her World stumbles on our ..er JS world!

2011-05-01T15:58:00.002+08:00

Her World, the fashion magazine for English speaking fashionistas in Malaysia came across Jumble Station recently and decided to do a write up. Jumble Station was called upon recently to collect donated items from one of its contributing writers Tania and while loading the stuff onto the lorry, the story of how we came about spilled out

What piqued Tania’s interest was the fact that JS was started by three very ordinary women, Malaysian women at that, doing very ordinary things for a much forgotten group – the single parents.

Realising that this story of impacting broken lives with newly donated items was something that should not be kept under wraps she promptly got the three of us together and got us to tell what prompted us to start Jumble Station and Parents Without Partners, the NGO organisation for single parents in need.

For those who have problems being interviewed, let me assure you, the interview part was the easy peasy part of the whole thing, the photography aspect turned out to be the real killer. First off, we tried sending our very own pix, newly snapped ones too – of us in different poses, casual, bold, daring, funny but no dice, they failed the cut!

So the editor sent along a photo editor, a photographer and a make-up artist! Yep, a makeup artist of all things and for someone who has never ever put any makeup on the face (except for when I had some slapped on at age 7 and thereby disliked makeup becos it made me look hideously unlike me and tasted horrid to boot! ) it was a traumatic prospect indeed!

Still one has to sacrifice for the sake of charity and hence yours truly went through it like a real trooper, preferring not to look in the mirror in the process until after the entire shooting is declared officially over When I finally dared to look I discovered that horrors! I look just like my mum! Cotton wool and facial lotion soon changed all that thankfully! So anyway, our JS article should be coming out in the June issue of Her World so hopefully it will be all worth it after all!

The Maturity Factor

2011-04-04T09:42:00.004+08:00

One of Parents Without Partner’s and Jumble Station’s stated principles is to help empower single parents and their kids to financial independence, kinda like teaching them to fish instead of feeding them with fish on a daily basis.

This is however easier said than done , often times, the single parent is too psychologically damaged to consider taking such a route or they are too afraid to even consider something that involves major responsibilities.

So often times, at JS we need to wait, encourage and nurture them to the right, stage where they will then be ready to take on the challenge of accepting a new responsibility. When that happens, the single parent will then be so happy and grateful for the opportunities given, for the second chance so to speak of making a difference and will work hard towards generating the extra income they need to forge on ahead.

Single father Adrian Ong’s case is one example. When he came to JS three years ago, he was a broken man – his earlier success as a fashion designer had all gone down the drain after being cheated, saddled with debts as guarantor for his former business partner, mistreated by his former employers and thrice attempting suicide. He had lost all interest in matters related to fashion designing and was content to work for us at our 2nd hand store. We mentored him and encouraged his many his talents until he was ready to embark on his own way again.
Today, JS managed to get him a small shop at PJ Old Town and he is now happily back in full swing in his favourite hobby – designing vintage wear and wedding apparel. The shop itself cost only RM150 in rental a month and that greatly reduced his overhead costs while his clientele is growing by the day. With the help of his sisters, he is now able to achieve his lifelong dream to have his own little boutique where his talents can be given free rein – needless to say he is thrilled beyond measure by the help and unstinting support rendered to him by JS. He says now he can rebuild his life and career and hopefully save for his planned RM15,000 surgery in May for his fluid in the brain proplem.

Single mother Jackie’s son is another matter altogether. William, aged 22 was not happy with the job that JS found for him, working in a factory that makes cleaning products. Both he and his mother claim that they make barely enough to pay for their rental and for extras and was in fact already two months behind in their rental. When the landlord called JS to complain and threatened to kick them out of the apartment, we decided to do something about it.

We asked William if he would be interested in starting his own business and he said that he was keen to get into the computer repair business. However due to his lack of nework contacts, JS realizes that he would need to have something else to rely on before his computer business can take off so it was suggested that he start a thrift shop in Setapak where the conditions are almost exactly like that of JS at Angsana Subang. The idea was for him to sell the donated items that JS would give to him while he builds up his contacts with the low cost residents there and thereby be able to supply their needs in terms of household items and IT requirements.

He agreed and a shoplot was promptly found and the rental deposit of RM3650 was promptly paid at end February. He gave in his notice and by March 7, he was free to focus on the shop. The only snag was, he suddenly liked his independent status better and took his time about getting the shop up and running. It took him 3 weeks to get just the TNB metre in and another 5 days just to get the forms for his business licence! By this time we had bought him a second hand car for RM3,000 and given him another RM2,50 for repairs because the tyres, clutch etc needed repairs done. Afterwhich more money was given to him to pay for his insurance, Puspakom inspection and JPJ transfer of names as well as RM1,400 for the overdue rental to his Jati flat so his landlord won’t kick them out while he is setting up this shop.

We thought that getting him the car and the shop would help galvanise him into action. Sorry, the sense of urgency to start earning his own income was sorely missing and come April 1, the shop was no where near to starting business. With nothing much being done JS naturally took him to task and boy did he react angrily. Describing the idea of a thrift shop as a “gila idea” he yelled that he had been having sleepless nights wondering how to repay JS back the RM11,350 that had already been extended to him. We told him to stop worrying about it and start doing something about it and so we gently began to move him towards that goal. Over the weekend his shop is now taking shape and hopefully once the doors are open for business he will understand what it means to generate his own income through his own hard work. JS hopes that this shop will someday free his mother of her need to drive kids to school which barely meets her monthly financial needs.

Two situations, two vastly different reactions – one brings tremendous joy, the other brings grief – JS admittedly has lots to learn too from these two experiences of launching businesses for single parents! The maturity factor is so very important in this entrepreneurial skills development aspect indeed. Hopefully with our guidance, William too will be a success after this initial immaturity hiccup!

Hopping from shop to shop

2011-03-09T08:54:00.002+08:00

This year of the rabbit has turned out to be one ‘hoppingly’ active period for us at Jumble Station with the establishment of four different charity shops on our plate. The first is the Brilliant Light Charity shop at Desa Mentari is almost 95% complete after the hefty renovations we had put into the place. Now all that’s needed is to buy the shelves from Ikea, have them installed onto the walls and presto the shop will be ready for business. Of course there is also that issue of getting the MBPJ approval for a business licence and an advertisement licence for our signboard. Both will be looked into by today hopefully.

Next we have the two shoplots, No 8 & 9 at the Jalan Othman Bus Station at PJ Old Town, those two have been painted by William and Kumanan single parents kids who wanted to earn extra income. From the dirty grubby, messy place initially, it’s now been cleaned up and painted white and again, all that’s needed is for the shelves and fan to be installed. These two shops are meant for CES’ homeless and reformed drug addicts to learn the skills of getting back into society and mastering the skills of being responsible for finances and products. The proposed name will be Old Town Thrift Shop (OTTS). JS also got another shop no:20 which has been lent to single father Adrian to start his own little boutique so that he can generate his own income independently and to help raise the funds he needs for surgery to drain the fluid in his head. The surgery if necessary will come up to RM15,000 at least so he is galvanised into building up his much needed finances. Funny thing is that when we first applied for the 3 shops in late November last year, the area was a dead place, had been for the last 2 years but after getting the shops at end January this year, all the other available shops were quickly snapped up - talk about a miracle!

As for the shop at Setapak, William is busy cleaning up the shop and trying to get Tan, the property agent to fix back the ceramic sink and make sure electricity and water are reinstalled in the corner shop. Once that’s done, we can then start putting in the supermarket shelves and wooden shelves needed so that goods can be properly displayed. This shop will be owned and managed by William and his mum to help them generate the income they need to survive and they plan to call it JackWille Bundle.

The shops are going to be ready soon, our biggest problem will be to find the right people to man these shops and therein lies the snag. We had hoped to use Kumanan to man the Brilliant Light shop but his lack of responsibility is such that we had to scrap this move and look for others to fill this role. We’ll have to earnestly pray for the right people to help us make this shop a real success!

Be Grateful, Be Thankful... always!

2011-02-12T11:45:00.003+08:00

Have embarked on a Gratitude Attitude Journal to remind myself of the many small blessings that come my way and this is one of them...

Lord.. I really don’t know why my phone had to act up today but I thank you for enabling me to dry it out fast enough, get a spare battery that fits it and allow my phone to hot sync with my PC so that all my contents and contacts aren’t going to be lost for good. Thankfully this experience is a good forewarning for me to back up all my info so that I won’t lose the data the way I did the other time.

I would also like to thank you earnestly for allowing me to be of help to Pasupthy and her daughter Mariam as well as Mary Dass and her daughter Linda. I had the lovely opportunity to assist them and be of real help to each of them by taking them all the way to Putrajaya.

Take Pasupthy for instance, when I discovered that there was a spelling mistake in her new copy of her birth certificate I managed to persuade the government clerk, despite her obvious reluctance, to re-issue her birth certificate with her proper name so that there will be no problems in the years to come.

As for Linda, I’m truly happy that I could assist in sending her to the National Registration Department and while there have a pep talk with her on her need to save more rather than spend all her earnings on goodness knows what.

I am also deeply grateful Lord that you did not make me to be a racist, the way the Malay civil servants were to Pasupthy especially when they dismissed my horrified look that it would take them 2 years to let Pasupthy know if her application for citizenship is approved or rejected.

I am truly so grateful for my Malaysian citizenship status that I’ve always taken so much for granted which has given me the right to vote in the Malaysian general elections especially after Pasupthy’s interviewer snidely remarked that ‘her one vote doesn’t count!”

Lord teach me never to be so insulting, so snide or so contemptuous of our God given right to vote and allow me to treasure my very own citizenship while praying that you will intervene for innocent folks like these single parents who ask for nothing more than what is their birthright!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of U!

2011-02-03T02:18:00.006+08:00

This fluffy Rabbit isn't staying in the hat! It's eager to nibble away at your bad vibes, hop over the dangerous spots in your life, leap with you in full abandon to a fuller abundance, bounce up in joy for your continued good health and pawfully pray for increased wealth for you and your loved ones. Gong Xi Fa Cai to all the loyal and wonderful supporters of Jumble Station and Parents Without Partners Bhd.

Welfare O Welfare... where art thou?

2011-02-01T09:03:00.002+08:00

The Welfare Ministry is supposed to take care of the needs of poor, destitute Malaysians. I’m pretty sure they have millions of such people all over Malaysia but surely it does not take the Ministry’s workers , two to three years to get their act together?
Recently Jumble Station took several of the single parents and poor families they had been caring for in Angsana, Subang Jaya to the week long registration exercise conducted by Kelana Jaya’s MP Loh Gwo-Burne for the elderly, the disabled, single parents and families in need.
For single mother Mariam, this is her fourth time registering her need as a single mother earning only RM650 with three growing boys to care for. The first time she registered, the Ministry officials promised to pay her a visit to officially check out her situation. Apparently one official did but left a message with Miriam’s youngest son, 10 years old then to have the mum call the Welfare Ministry. Needless to say she never got the message. In 2009 Jumble Station helped her to apply a second time, six months went by, nothing.
A check revealed that the officer in charge of her case had quit and no one bothered to follow up on her backlog. Another application was put in last year and another officer dropped by to verify her situation while Mariam was at work, peeped in her rented flat saw that she had ‘nice’ things like sofa, /TV etc and concluded that she isn’t poor! Helloooo... those items were given to her by Jumble Station as per our policy of helping needy single parents and she shouldn’t have been deprived of her Welfare benefit because of this cursory glance. One phone call could have cleared this up but no.. and now three years later, Miriam is still struggling without a sen from Welfare.
Yeong Fong Pheng and her husband Victor are disabled or OKU because they are both deaf and mute. Both are registered with the Welfare Ministry and have been issued OKU cards each. Victor gets a small sum each month but his wife gets nothing. They have a five year old daughter and Victor works as a store keeper for about RM800 a month. Yeong’s attempts to find sewing work that she can do at home has been unsuccessful, she is illiterate and mute making it really tough to communicate with her. For some strange reason, Welfare has neglected her need for money to help raise her little girl!
Grace Ramayah is wheel chair bound. She has been getting welfare benefits when she was in Klang but when she relocated to Angsana to be with her son who has since found a job as a contract worker in a factory, her Welfare payments stopped. Frantic enquiries revealed that Klang welfare officers regard her case as ‘case closed’ since she no longer lives in Klang while the Subang Welfare Department says she has to put in a fresh application. That was done but to date, nothing has come out of it.
Panjalai has just turned 60 and had herself registered as part of the “Usia Emas” group. She has no idea what kind of benefits is available for senior citizens in Malaysia. She registered in the hope that the Welfare Dept will give her something, anything to assist her because her son is still unemployed and her daughter has not finished her studies at Help University where she was given a scholarship.

They and several hundred others who registered at Desa Mentari during the week long exercise were told to come back on Jan 30th Sunday at 9am to meet with Welfare Department officials over their needs, JS sent them over at 8.30am and they sat through till 11am only to realise they had been duped into becoming one of the “two hundred strong crowd” present to welcome a Gerakan politician! All they got from their Sunday wait was the same lame “we’ll look into your situation and don’t call us, we’ll call you!” promise. It’s time the Welfare Ministry in Subang have a real heart for those in need, forget the politics, just get the money to where it’s needed most – the hard core poor!

Forging ahead in 2011

2011-01-17T13:49:00.004+08:00

Jumble Station last night held an appreciation ‘makan’ for its workers, helpers and volunteers. The makan itself was in an Indian restaurant at USJ9 and present were the three founders, Ping Ngan, Lian See and Mary Anne.

The VIPs for the night were full time worker Fazila Saad, part time van drivers Fauzi and single mum Jacky, her son William who assists with collections during the lorry runs with Yun, night time worker and single mum Panjalai and her daughter Sujatha, odd job worker and son of a single mother Siva Nathan and volunteer Kim.

After a hefty banana leaf rice complete with yogurt and “rasem’ all of us adjourned to Ping Ngan’s house where a series of team building games were conducted to strengthen the team spirit among the JS folks. First off they were all asked to discover details of each other, from full name to favourite food, fruit, movie and colour and within a space of 10 minutes. Each one was then called upon to reveal the info obtained whereupon it was discovered that some had not got around to interviewing the person while others tried to remember what they had seen in their rival’s paper!

Mary Anne then divided them into two teams – even and odd – and shot off a series of questions all pertaining to JS matters. Questions such as how old was JS in 2010 showed that one team mistakenly thought it had been 6 years while the other team got it spot on 3 years! Even the name of the organization that owns Jumble Station was comically written as Parents Without Parents when in fact it should have been Parents Without Partners!

Still it was a good and fun way for the staff to really learn about JS/PWP and discard the erroneous info they may have unwittingly stored. A Blessed draw was then held with every staff and helper walking off with a prize each bringing smiles to all of them by the time they went back home. Mary Anne then urged them all to work collectively for the continued success of JS and to put aside their differences while embracing new changes so that together we can all march forward to make a greater impact on society and single parents in particular.

Hello 2011!!!!!

2010-12-31T21:37:00.004+08:00

Today is the first day of the New Year and its the beginning of another year of fresh starts, fun activities and new experiences. Here's a card wishing everyone out there rooting for us to do more, to do better this year a lovely card from little ant who is currently resting down under for another week!

A Thank You card to all our friends

2010-12-24T20:14:00.002+08:00

Hey another Christmas has crept on us and we wanna take the opportunity to say a million thanks to all who have helped us in this ministry.

This free ecard created with Smilebox

Elim Gospel Hall blesses poor single parents

2010-12-20T02:46:00.004+08:00

With the economy getting worse by the day, finance remains a big headache for many a poor single parents and when December comes around, the issue becomes a nagging problem. Why? Well single parents first have to feed their hungry hordes of kids, secondly they have to find the cash to buy new school items – school bag, books, uniforms, shoes, socks, even track suits in some cases – and all those require cash.

Realising this, Elim Gospel Hall in Ipoh organized a fund raising dinner with veteran singer Fong Pei Pei to help raise additional cash for poor single parents under PWP/Jumble Station’s care. Lim Lian See and Mary Anne, made the trek up north for this very special event and arrived just in time despite not being familiar with the route.

The dinner itself was held at a local seafood restaurant where some 51 tables were all taken up by church members, their supporters and family members. A 15 member choir kicked off with a Chinese rendition of Christmas carols followed by a speech by David Ho of Hovid Bhd who also heads the Professional Youth Fellowship (PYF) organisation up in Ipoh.

Mary Anne was then invited to share a little about what PWP has been doing to assist poor single parents and her speech was simultaneously translated for the benefit of the mostly Chinese listeners. After that, a cheque presentation for RM18,000 was handed over to Mary Anne by David Ho but sadly the picture could not be taken because the guy who was entrusted with the task of photographing the historic moment, forgot to switch on the camera and couldn’t understand why the camera would not function!

Meanwhile the guests tucked into the delicious Chinese course dinner while the veteran singer crooned her way into the hearts of her faithful supporters who listened and watched with rapt attention. Unfortunately, we had to rush out of the concert hall because Lian See’s handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist and we had to take her to the police station to make a report. Except for this one inconvenience, the Ipoh outing was a great success and we would like to thank God for kind and compassionate souls like Elim Gospel Hall members for reaching out to our single parents in need.

Once again a very “Big Thank You” for all those who made this event so successful and memorable.

Oman Air Winners

2010-12-05T01:24:00.002+08:00

Three single parents children have been selected to go to Oman and they did it all on their own merit. The three winners comprise all the elements of 1Malaysia – Sujatha Sahadevan, 19, Suri Juliana, 16, and Robin Lee, 15 years old.
The three winners beat 13 other contenders in the essay writing and art competition centred on the topic of “Why I want to go to Oman” which was held last month.

Most of the competitors chose the easy route, preferring drawing over essay writing except for one Chinese girl who wrote her entire essay in Bahasa Malaysia and flawlessly too. The only snag was, the essay itself lacked the oomp says the two penultimate judges – Kathleen, the Oman Air sales & marketing manager and Jennifer Ann Nelson the PR for Oman Air.

According to the duo, Robin’s essay won over that of the one written in BM because of his creative style of writing and the unique focus of his essay – food. Funnily enough, Robin who isn’t anywhere near fat waxes lyrical about the kind of foods to be found in Oman and expresses an intense desire to taste all the different flavours to be found in Oman.

Suri Julianna, the second winner, impressed the judges with her manga style of drawing and her attention to detail. At her mother’s urging Juliana surfed the Internet to see what Oman had to offer and then proceeded to depict them faithfully – manga style. Compared to the entries from the other kids, hers was a class above, definitely. She was shrewd enough to also include Oman Air logo and in Jawi too!

As for Sujatha, she wrote a commendable piece on Oman’s touristy sights with a special interest on the visiting of markets also known as ‘souks’ while Mary Anne Letricia was an equally strong contender in the Indian category with her penetrative yet hugely bombastic use of words to describe Oman in general. Both were shortlisted for an interview where Kathleen would be able to finally decide on who among the two would be picked to go.

In the end, Sujatha won purely by default because Letricia did not want to make an effort to turn up for the meeting which was held at the Oman Air offices, smack in the centre of KL. The trio were asked by Kathleen to talk at length about what they’ve learnt about Oman while in the process of surfing the Internet and all three spoke confidently which made the interview very interesting.

Kathleen then informed the three that the actual flight to Oman would be postponed to January next year because the Omanis are in the process of winding down what with Hari Raya Haji, the King’s Birthday and the recently concluded Asian Games.

To all three winners, you’re de best and you’re the first of many more future pool of Oman air ambassadors that will be formed in the near future. Once again ‘Congrats’ to all winners and to those kids who did not succeed, there’s always next year to try again!

Classic car ride for the little "Elks"

2010-11-16T11:10:00.004+08:00

Parents Without Partners /Jumble Station brought a total of 11 poor kids for the recent vintage car ride, wholly sponsored by Elken Malaysia which is touted as one of the top players in the direct selling industry in Malaysia.

By the way, Elken is a made-in-Malaysia success story beginning in 1995 with strong foothold in Asian nations including Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore. Elken encourages its members touching lives in a more meaningful way and the vintage car ride last Saturday was a case in point.

The ride saw vintage car owners collaborating with Elken to bring joy to the little ones firstly via the stimulating, wind swept car ride from the Old Klang road right through the busiest parts of Kuala Lumpur and in the heart of the KL business centre where Elken’s Japanese restaurants were located.

The ride itself was as usual pretty exhilarating for kids and single mum Jacky who had never rode in such classic cars but the Japanese food was truly an enigma to many of the little passengers – most hardly touched the artistically beautiful food – finding it too strange for their liking and opted mainly for the mushroom soup which they could swallow.

Which was a pity because to see the fried prawns, the salads, the rolls all left untouched was a waste, perhaps the organisers should have realised that kids from poorer neighborhoods would have preferred simpler meals like fried rice, fried noodles and fried vegetables.

The other strange feel is that while the poor, marginalised kids were supposed to be the VIPs for the day, it turned out that the vintage car owners were the ones feted more than the kids themselves. From the start, while the kids waited for more than an hour for the event to start, the vintage car owners were the first to be invited to have their breakfast of sandwiches and fried spring rolls, no one remembered to feed the hungry kids.

By the time yours truly went to remind the organisers, the breakfast spread was no more and Elken staff had to make do with little satchets of biscuits and cookies instead. Again when it came time to giving out the goody bags, the car owners took precedence over the kiddies making one feel like the underpriviledged kids were just an after thought and not the key reason for the entire vintage car ride.

Ah well, Elken assistant Vice President Group HR Dr Henry Yeoh saved the day by being such a nice sport himself, taking time to chat with the little ones, walking up to many of the cars to get to know the special passengers and generally making himself available for many a photo opportunity. So kudos to Elken for its first ever vintage CSR project and hopefully, they will learn to be better than the best, the next time around.

Rights of single parents – Suhakam seminar

2010-11-03T01:33:00.002+08:00

Human Rights organization Suhakam got the ball rolling recently with its day long seminar on the rights of single mothers. Led by the VVIP former 1st lady Siti Hasmah, some 200 people turned up for the event. The majority were representatives from the various single mothers association from as far north as Penang and south as in Johor.

Frankly I thought the seminar should have been expanded to include single dads as well and that it would have been better to have it renamed to ‘Single Parents’ rather than it be a Single Mum’s affair.

I was roped in to give my two sen worth because Lian See wasn’t comfortable in BM and after hearing about all the usual woes faced by single mums, it seemed like the perfect platform to share about what needs to be done to get the agenda of transformation for the single parents in Malaysia moving ahead.

I kicked off my sharing with some suggestions that I hoped would be picked up by the planners and they number around 5. They include:

1. Creating a national database of poor single parents, their details and the help received from which particular organization
2. Publishing a handy booklet on the different financial aids made available to single parents both by the government and by the private sector
3. Offering more focused financial aids and seed capital so poor single parents can develop a more entrepreneurial mindset.
4. Getting the Welfare Ministry to be sensitive to the plight of single parents by increasing their monthly aid from the current RM100 a month to a higher sum to keep up with the inflationary spiral. The RM450 maximum per family should be revised to RM450 minimum per family because the cost of living is escalating year by year
5. The Welfare Ministry needs to get its act together – stop sending single parents to three different places just to get their monthly aid, to conduct home checks with reference to the charity organization that is assisting them because JS policy of giving furniture, deco items etc could well backfire since the Welfare Department would deem the contents of their home as evidence of obvious wealth!

Will Suhakam convey these suggestions to the government? Will the relevant government organizations or agencies ferret out the truth behind such suggestions? If they do, then the seminar would have proven its worth, if nothing worthwhile emerges from this daylong discussions, then it would be one more exercise in futility that Malaysia is fast gaining a sour reputation for. More’s the pity if it does happen that way!

Getting the lazy to move

2010-10-05T03:29:00.005+08:00

How does one move a sluggish individual? How does one motivate someone who does not appear to want to be motivated? The usual way would be to figuratively ‘light a fire’ under the person’s bum and hope like hell it gets him into a frenzy of activity which last long after the fire is gone!

JS did that recently to a single mother’s kid who for the last 10 months has been refusing to find a job, preferring instead to play computer games for hours on end. With sufficient food in the kitchen and a roof over his head, there was no incentive for him to find employment, why should he?

Like an addict, be it with drugs, alcohol or gambling, the best way to get around this addiction is to remove the temptation totally so that the process of withdrawal is implemented and a cure is achieved.

Since the CPU was the cause of the addiction, the best solution was to remove it and this was promptly done but boy, that sparked off a furious reaction with threats and curses raining down like cats and dogs. The fracas was finally settled by the adroit inclusion of a business mentor who was fired up enough to give him a piece of his mind while tearing at his excuses to justify his inaction.

For our part, JS too needed to get out of its inertia, its languorous state of complacency so we went off to attend a free talk on Grooming Social Entrepreneurs organized by the Ashoka Foundation under the auspices of the Malaysian Association of Creativity and Innovation (Macri) and supported jointly by the American Embassy and the Global Entrepreneur Week. Ashoka is the leading organization for the social entrepreneurs on a global scale.

Some 30 plus people were there and the speaker Alexis Ditkowsky had everyone keenly follow her every word since she was sharing some of the creative and innovative ways to raise funds without just adopting the traditional palms up approach.

She outlined all the new media channels where others have gone before and a few where none had gone before. There were the online retail outlet Elevyn for instance that specializes in selling crafts and works of charitable organizations while others offered buying opportunities and online competitions to entice more NGOs into applying for grants which were there for the taking. Clean Tech for instance is organizing a contest for the greenest idea in the area of Green Technology while Creativity in Innovation is much sought after by Tomel.

Beyond the talk, it was the networking opportunity that was relished the most because now, there were more new faces going places and it is always very useful to re-connect or establish connections with the people in the same charitable field or those with a keen interest to assist or volunteer their services.

The end result with regard to the lighting of the fire and the exposition of new ideas is the same – rejuvenation coupled with a deep desire to fly higher or to reach for the next level of achievement. Either way, it’s good, far better than maintaining the poor status quo right?

Write or creatively draw your way to Oman

2010-09-29T11:39:00.006+08:00

Want to travel to Oman? Want to see what the other side of the world has to offer? Oman Air, the official airline for Oman will be giving three children of poor single parents from Parents Without Partners’ organization, a chance to fly and stay for free at Muscat, the capital city of Oman from November 28-Dec 2 2010.

If you want the chance to get to Muscat, hurry and take part in our Art or Essay Competition and prove to us that you deserve to be picked as one of the winners for this very special contest.

Aged between 12-15? Show us your dexterity with the paintbrush or markers by drawing your view of Oman as the ultimate travel destination. Draw what you hope to see, draw why you think traveling to Oman will help you. Draw anything that captures your fancy, along the lines of why “I want to travel to Oman” and see if your drawing captures the hearts of the judges.

For youths within the ages of 16-20, take a pen to paper or get on to a PC to type out a 300 word essay in English or BM on why “I want to travel to Oman”. Let your thoughts soar to the skies, share your aspirations, your dreams, your hopes about what you want to do, see or experience when you are there. Let your creative juices rip, the more creative your essay, the more fascinating a read it becomes, the better your chances of flying on Oman Air come the year end school holidays.

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking and be sure not to miss the Oct 15 deadline and remember to include:

Your full name:
IC:
Address:
HP:
Parent’s full name:
HP:

For more information, contact: Mary Anne Tan 016-2202958, Lim Lian See 0123871757

Incidentally, this is a CSR initiative by newcomer Oman Air to give back to Malaysia for the warm hospitality and welcome it received when it launched its inaugural Muscat to KL flight early this year. Despite being so new to the fast rising Malaysian aviation scene, Oman Air has hit the ground running with its desire to assist the marginalised and PWP/Jumble Station is delighted to be the recipient of its humanitarian gesture. PWP president Lim Lian See and vice president Mary Anne got together with Oman Air District Sales Manager Kathleen Leong and her PR consultant Jennifer to hammer out the details of the competition. PWP looks forward to Oman Air inspiring its single parents' kids to look to the skies and beyond for a better life ahead.

Hunting down Jumble Station

2010-09-01T11:12:00.008+08:00

Jumble Station became the 'hunted' for some 50 treasure hunters from Harvest Church at Subang Jaya on Merdeka Day. William the organizer of the treasure hunt, a professional hunter himself had stumbled upon Jumble Station while doing some early recognizance trips earlier in the month.

Delighted to discover what JS has been doing to impact the lives of many poor folks and especially focusing on making life easier for poor single parents, he decided to include JS in the treasure hunting route and to make sure they actually got to know us, he had the teams bring items for the shop.

So around noon of Merdeka Day, there were several cars that eventually found their way outside our shop and William himself was on hand to welcome them while yours truly explained to the curious treasure hunters what exactly we were doing to assist those in need.

Most of the hunters came armed with donated items but a few sheepishly said they only got the message early this morning and it was too late but promised to start bringing items to JS from now on. Some of the items donated ranged from a brown mahogany electric guitar to aromatheraphy items, from cooking pots to cute cuddly toys.

For many of the hunters who were accompanied by little kids, JS was a great place to get to know because now they know where to bring their extraneous items plus we were able to show them first hand how our single parents kids also use unwanted plastic items to make robots for sale!

MyKasih @ Mydin

2010-08-20T02:04:00.004+08:00

Single Parents and Poor Families at Angsana recently got the feel of how the MyKasih programme works during the official launch at the Mydin Hypermarket in Subang Jaya.
Ambank chief honcho Tan Sri Dato Azman Hashim kicked off the event with a RM52,000 donation for the Angsana based recipients and another RM1 million for future neighbourhood locations to come. Mydin’s big boss Dato Ameer Ali Mydin who was once an employee of Ambank was also on hand to welcome his former boss and the My Kasih team.

Single parents Panjalai came with her son Kumanan and daughter Sujatha, Mariam came with her younger son Karthik, Letchumy, Jacky, Irene Tong and Suhaibah were also there for this special occasion. A mute couple, Victor and Fang Pheng recommended by Jumble Station were present for the event and appeared quite bewildered by what was going on!

Each of the MyKasih recipient was given a duit raya packet with RM50 in it and told to begin shopping for their RM40 groceries that day itself. For many, it was a case of trial and error, many had to go back and take only the items that were featured in a little booklet they were given and any different products taken meant delays at the payout counter. Once the right goods were checked out, the recipient’s MyKad was inserted into a handheld machine and the amount of goods bought was successfully swiped from their MyKad.

Many of the single parents and even the mute couple were delighted to go home armed with big bags of groceries and they were even more delighted to learn that they would be getting MyKasih’s RM40 every two weeks for 12 months. They are of course, extremely grateful to all the corporate bodies out there that were willing to sponsor this uniquely special programme for the poor. The Angsana single parents are happy, hopefully it will be the turn of single parents at Lembah Subang, Desa Mentari or Shah Alam next.

PWP benefits from the Edge Rat Race 2010

2010-08-12T10:38:00.008+08:00

There is a big difference between being a runner and a charity recipient in the Edge Rat Race. As a runner, you are high on adrenaline and you sweat buckets as you try to make it to the finishing line. As a recipient of the Edge Rat Race, you are also running on adrenaline mentally and you sweat buckets in the heat as you wait for the race to be over but the difference is that as a recipient, you already know you are a winner from the minute you participate!

For Parents without Partners (PWP), the thrill was to be a part of this pulsating, fun, adrenaline driven annual event. I’d forgotten how much fun it was and participating in the 2010 event brought it all back with a vengeance. Years back when I first joined the Edge netvalue team, one of the first things newcomers have to do in the Edge is to run for the Rat Race and I gamely took up the challenge while my other colleague Risen chose the easier route – cover the event as a journalist.

In the end, the running was the easier part, you could run or walk and I did both, beating our dispatch boy by several lengths too! This year, PWP was chosen as one of the 20 recipients for the charity run and we were given each a table to display our creative wares and brochures so that the runners and their corporate supporters could have a better idea of what we the charity organizations that they were raising funds for, were actually doing.

Sad to say, only a handful of curious supporters and cheerleaders stopped at the row of tables where we were situated but undaunted, yours truly decided to be more proactive. Armed with my faithful SLR, I marched up to the stage and proceeded to take photos of the various groups that were being photographed by the Edge’s official photographer. When each team came down, I handed over my business card and told them that I had the photos if they wanted and to keep us in mind if they had items they wanted to let go. How’s that for pro-active promotion?

In the evening, we the 20 charity organizations were feted to a lovely dinner in an open amphitheatre and each organization was presented with a mock cheque for the projects we had planned to implement. In our case, we had presented three different projects first off was the Brilliant Light Homework Centre – a homebased study centre for kids who are unable to attend school due perhaps to a lack of birth certs or have been expelled from school for various reasons.

The second project is the Hungry Hearts Project – a soup kitchen concept that we believe will help ensure there are less hungry kids and their parents at Lembah Subang. The last project is the Photography with Passion project that we hope to implement during the end year school holidays where the children of single parents can learn photography and develop a new interest and new skills to help keep them off the streets.

This donation from the Edge is the first of many more fund raising activities PWP intends to undertake to ensure we have the funds we need to empower single parents in need to live more independent lives. We believe always in doing our best and leave God to do the rest!

Meet Fabroid & Kidroid – Our single dad and son robots

2010-08-01T21:53:00.007+08:00

What do you do if a kid dislikes academic studies? Or cannot find a job after many months? Try getting them to learn new skills – like robot making for instance! Jumble Station got this opportunity recently when robot maker extraordinaire Lim dropped by at Angsana Flats in USJ 1 Subang Jaya to invite 5 children of single parents to participate in a one day workshop on how to make robots.

Getting five youngsters to volunteer for this was easy, almost everyone of the youngsters present clamoured for the opportunity but in the end, it was 20-year old Kumanan, jobless for 5 months now, his sister Sujatha, Siva and his brother Kannan and Prityaraj were the happy ones who got the chance to participate in the course.

Mind you the course isn’t cheap, it costs roughly around RM400 per kid but what’s great about this is that the course is already sponsored by a corporate individual or organization so for the charity organization concerned, it’s free! Lim’s task was to teach the art of creating and building robots using everyday recycle items, objects and parts.

So there we were, bright and early at the Youth International Centre in Cheras where the Whiz Wits class by Think Technique founder Lim Name Aik was being held. There we found another five groups (a sixth group came in much later) from the various homes in the Klang Valley. There was the Ti Ratana Karuna Ilam group from Kepong, the Anbul Ilam group from Klang, the Cornerstone group from Semenyih, the Shelter Home group from Petaling Jaya and the House of Joy. The last group to arrive was ….

To get the motley crew of young robot makers into the spirit of creativity, Lim first had the youngster moving to a rap song designed to get their different body parts moving in consonant with the lyrics – right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg, head… you get the drift?

Rap over, the kids then swung into action. Taking the recycled items that they had brought, they got into a quick huddle to decide on what form their robot would take. For a while most were stumped for answers till Lim came along and guided them expertly into what would be suitable for which part of the robot. All, except one team of girls who came with just a sackful of mineral water bottles, they later got a helping hand from the other teams who had extra items they didn’t need.

Next the kids were given directions on how to use the various drills, bits and other electrical mechanical gadgets, the braver ones couldn’t wait to get their hands on the equipment, the more timid ones preferred to just watch or hold the items to be drilled fast.

Our team were perplexed at first and spent the greater part of the morning on how to get the base for the robot properly affixed because it was not plastic but metal. Eventually they settled on putting a square shaped hi fi speaker and screwing it on really tight. Next was the issue of putting the hollowed out printer and computer monitor together which was a real issue because one was bigger than the other and leaving it like that made for a very wobbly robot. Even Lim the expert couldn’t devise a way to get the robot to stand rock solid so the team eventually decided to completely remove the printer and just make do with the pc monitor which made for a shorter robot than most but at least it was steady and firm.

For the head, they used an aromatic bowl with its innards removed while its eyes were from an old binoculars and its limbs from a discarded plastic tricycle. On their own, the discarded items looked like what they were – junk – but in the hands of these young, enthusiastic robotic mechanics, the items were creatively put together to emerge as “Fabroid and Kidroid” a father and son robotic family. When asked, Kumanan explained that all the members of the team were children of single parents, they wanted their prototype robot to be a single father and his robotic son!And the green Hulk hands - that's to tell others to lend a helping hand and to green the earth. How nice, now we can use this item for a promotion the next JS goes on an awareness drive.

Meanwhile the other teams delivered pretty impressive results too, especially after their creative endeavours were spray painted silver coloured. Funnily, none of the other teams wanted to use any other colour except silver although there were green and red ones as well. The only team that consented to use only did that because there were no silver spray paints left by the time all the other teams got through theirs. Naturally every team was extremely proud of their new achievement and the JS team got a double dose of confidence when Fabroid and Kidroid were photographed by two women who were captivated by it while we were waiting for our ride home. With the robotic competition coming up sometime in September, you can bet, these youngsters will be raring to show off their new found ‘robotics’ skills.

MyKasih for Angsana folks

2010-07-28T20:02:00.005+08:00

When one is poor and struggling, every little bit of help is much needed and appreciated. MyKasih a non-governmental organization that gets corporate organizations to donate cash which in turn is used to assist poorer folks recently dropped by Angsana Flats USJ1 to register the needy families as part of their latest exercise to reach poorer neighbourhoods.

Parents Without Partners was alerted of this planned event and had pre-registered its Angsana based single parents with the MyKasih team. So when the team turned up we found that the multipurpose hall at Angsana was already filling up with many people, most of them registering their details with the Resident Committee of Angsana under Encik Azmi and his team.

On our part, there was single mother Letchumy who struggles to feed her three sons on the meager salary she earns from Mydin. There was also her sister Marimmah who is also a single mother of three boys, there was Panjalai who works in a kindergarten and has two grown children, one studying at Help University on a scholarship obtained with the help of Jumble Station and the other still seeking a job without much success. There was also Suhaibah who works at JS and has a teenaged daughter to worry over while Irene Thung, who works in a restaurant took some time off to be there in person and Jackie You who drives two kids to school and has two of her own to care for as well.

Single dad Hasrun a lorry driver couldn’t make it for the event because he had overtime work while single mother Liza clean forgot about it, another single mother Dasma did not respond to the request for details. All three have forfeited their chance to participate in the MyKasih programme because the quota for the evening has already been met which is a real pity.

Having officially registered their details, the officials from MyKasih will personally visit the homes of the families concerned to ascertain the authenticity of their need. Encik Ahmad from MyKasih says one of the factors they will consider is whether or not the home looks ‘poor’ or ‘rich’. Ouch! I told him that my single parents homes will look very nice because JS policy has been to give the best household things and anything else they may need to poor single parents because that’s what our generous donors want us to do.

As such, the MyKasih officials should not penalize our single parents because they’re innocent of the trappings of nice things thanks to JS policy. Ahmad says he will keep that in mind and that’s a relief. Once the registered ones are cleared for assistance, they will be given RM80 a month – RM40 every two weeks – embedded in their Mykad which can be used at the Giant hypermart for all their grocery or other miscellanous needs. This cash assistance will go on for one year at least which should be of immense relief to the poorer folks at Angsana, Subang Jaya.

Joshua our little hero!

2010-07-03T06:28:00.003+08:00

Joshua is less than 2 months old and already he was embroiled in a little drama! His dad Danni is a Nepalese and works as a security guard at the One Avenue condo just opposite Jumble Station. His mum is an Indonesian Rumanan who also works as a cleaner at the same condo. They met and married without much fanfare and then had little Joshua 48 days ago. The drama began when Danni took little Joshua for his usual morning walk and got enticed into drinking by two of his Nepalese friends.

At around 11am Rumanan came down to the ground floor to get her son and inform Danni that lunch was ready, he was all tanked up and became amourous. When she rejected him, he lashed out at her and they had a terrible fight which became violent. A badly injured Rumanan ran off leaving a very drunken Danni to care for Joshua. Tipsy and weaving his way around the Angsana flat area, Danni apparently was so zonked out he kept knocking into things and apparently tripped on a stone which caused Joshua to fall from his arms and onto his head. A crying Joshua suffered a severe swelling on his head but his drunken dad refused to allow anyone to take him despite his drunkness. A huge crowd had gathered just outside of Jumble Station with many customers begging us to do something!

Yours truly finally managed to persuade Danni to hand over little Joshua by telling the father that his little boy needed new clothes and JS has lots of new infant clothes. Danni handed over little Joshua to us and he was hurriedly placed under protection from further endangerment by the staff of Jumble Station while awaiting the arrival of the police. Tensions arose when it was discovered that Danni is a Christian and Rumanan a Muslim and some self appointed local vigilantes then kicked and punched him in the name of religion. JS staff had a tough time trying to protect him from the brutal beating while ensuring he did not get near to little Joshua to snatch him away.When the police did arrive they came on motorbikes and we had to wait another half hour for a police car to come and take little Joshua for medical attention.

Imagine our surprise when we were told that Joshua could not go in a police car for whatever reason. Frantic with worry over his increased swelling and his constant crying, we rushed him to SJMC in an ordinary car but again bureaucracy reigned, the private hospital refused to begin treatment unless someone was willing to pay for it! Eventually it was decided that little Joshua would be sent to the PPUM (former Universiti Hospital) where he was immediately admitted to the children’s ICU ward.

Much later, his mother arrived at JS just as the UH ambulance arrived and she was taken to UH to await her son but after waiting for 4 hours, she returned to JS not sure of where little Joshua had been placed. The police then insisted that she along with JS staff go to the USJ8 police station to lodge a report on the baby injury incident and boy was it a long long process, we ended up having to drive all the way to Seri Kembangan where the Subang IPD was located and where we had our statements taken and recorded in case Joshua took a turn for the worse.

It was near midnight by the time we brought Rumanan to PPUM and she saw her little boy admitted as an ‘unknown’ in the ICU ward. Little Joshua had suffered a hemorrhage in his brain and both his arms were broken so he was kept in the hospital for five days as he underwent a battery of tests. His dad meanwhile was kept in the Puchong lockup pending investigations into whether Joshua’s injuries were caused by his father deliberately throwing him as some Angsana residents were alleging or if it was an accidental fall.

Five nights later, little Joshua was deemed okay to leave the hospital and brought home by his relieved mother and the next day, he was smothered in kisses by his very relieved, happy and very sober father Danni. Unfortunately for Danni, his fate will now have to be dependent on a judge but for Joshua, it had been a narrow escape from death and his second shot at life is nothing short of miraculous indeed!

True, Jumble Station's policy is to assist only Malaysian single parents but Joshua's critical state forced us to bend the rules a little and when we accepted this innocent bundle of joy we had to see it right through... which meant taking the mum to and fro the hospital, getting clothes for she and little Joshua, buying pampers and giving the mum RM100 in case of emergencies as well as driving both mum and child to all the police stations for the official reports.

The key thing is that Jumble Station played a vital role in rescuing this little innocent and in the end, little Joshua became the real hero of this near tragic drama when he emerged safe and relatively sound from his hospital stay.

Homeless in Subang

2010-06-02T10:03:00.006+08:00

Jackie has been a single mother for some eight years now ever since her hubby left their matrimonial home in Subang Jaya without bothering to care for their two children, William and Emily.

The abrupt departure of her ex forced Jackie to take on the responsibility of bringing up the two kids single handedly and she did it in the only way possible – driving other people’s kids to and from school and tuition classes – in her really beat up old car.

Earning barely enough each month to survive was tough enough but this was made bearable by the fact that at least she and her kids have a roof over their heads. After all, the house was all paid for and no one can take it away from her thought this single mother, a former receptionist now turned transport driver.

She thought wrong! When the economy became bad and her ex ran out of money he pestered her to sell their matrimonial home which was registered in both their names. When she refused to do so, he took it on himself to re-mortgage it instead.

The bank official who handled the documentation assured Jackie that the ex-husband would be held “solely responsible” for the new loan and based on this assurance, Jacky signed the new loan documents. Big mistake! The loan was not paid and since the ex was nowhere to be found, the bank resorted to recover its monies by auctioning off Jacky’s house in USJ, Subang Jaya.

The successful auction bidder tried over a period of two years to get Jackie to move out of the house so he could claim possession of it but she unable to believe the home is no longer hers, stubbornly refused to let the new owner take it. He had no choice but to turn to the law and armed with the proper papers and accompanied by court officials took possession of the house. Like most single parents, the betrayal by their spouse and that of losing their beloved home is enough to make them want to blank out the reality of the situation until things come to a head.

Jackie and her two kids now found that the neighbourhood playing field has become her new ‘open’ home. The newly homeless trio suddenly found themselves battling on two fronts – finding a new home as fast as possible and fighting off strangers and neighbourhood kids who were helping themselves to the items that had been dumped in the open field. Heavy evening downpours made matters even worse, rendering everything soggy and damp while destroying a couple of their most prized possessions as well.

Fortunately, Jackie had the sense to call Subang Jaya ADUN Hannah Yeoh who responded swiftly to her plight by having Jackie and her kids stay at a budget hotel Cottage Inn while arranging for a lorry to cart away some of the bigger items such as their TV, sofa set, fridge etc to a storage space in Klang. Still not all the items could be hauled away and for the next four days, William and Emily faithfully went back to the field to guard their ‘gradually dwindling’ collection of displaced family possessions while agonizing over where they would stay next knowing full well they did not possess the means to pay for a deposit even to rent a new home!

That’s when Parents Without Partners (PWP) and Jumble Station (JS) came in to help out. Alerted by Hannah Yeoh’s office on Jacky’s plight, PWP immediately swung into action and managed to secure a small 3 bedroom flat just across the street from where JS 2nd hand shop is located.

The rental for the flat was RM700 a month and we paid for the rental deposit requested by the landlord - two months deposit and one month rental in advance plus half month deposit for utilities. We also gave William the cash needed to buy paints and brushes to do up the flat and make it a lot more hospitable for his family and enough cash to pay for their 5-day stay at the Cottage Inn.

Today, Jackie, William and Emily have a roof over their heads. JS which collects donated items for single parents was also able to replace many of Jackie and her kids’ items that had been stolen or destroyed by the rains. They have also be placed on our list of food bank recipients for monthly food rations that includes rice, noodles, biscuits, oil etc. PWP also partners other organizations like the Lions of Subang Jaya to bring groceries to needy single parents.

A very tearful Jackie, William and Emily couldn’t believe there are organizations out there like PWP and JS that would selflessly assist single parents in need regardless of race or religious factors and not expect to be repaid either! “For eight years I struggled all alone to raise my two children without help from my ex. Now I am truly grateful that PWP and JS are there to help us in our time of need. We don’t feel so alone any more and we really want to thank all those who cared enough to help us through this very difficult time.”

Getting acquainted with Aquaria

2010-05-26T08:34:00.006+08:00

Some years back, while working with the Edge as a journalist I wrote on the planned construction of an underwater world class aquarium to be known as the Aquaria. In 2005 this 60,000 sq ft natural aquatic museum was completed and opened to the public but I never got around to seeing it.

Recently, I finally got the chance to visit it together with some single parents from Angsana. They included newest single mum Jackie and her daughter Emily, Panjalai and her daughter Sujatha, Mariam’s two younger sons Kannan and Karthik, Letchmy’s two younger sons Dinesh and Rajesh and Suhaibah’s daughter Juliana.

Another 3 big busload from DUMC were also there and that made for a huge crowd of youngsters all clamouring for a closer look. The views of the various, strange looking, and weird animals and amphibians all made for a very fascinating educational time for both the young and the old that went there.

The single parents and their little ones were mesmerized by the colours, the shapes, the stunning sizes of the various fishy creatures that swam, snucked or swivelled by in their mammoth tanks. The overhead glass aquarium afforded an unbeatable view of the undersides of huge sharks, stingrays, giant turtles that literally swished by from right to left as our little ones and their older parents watched with awestruck wonder.All the single parents and kids that came ad never been inside the Acqaria so it was a fascinating and memorable event for all.

The photos show it best and this is one of the many different ways in which Parents Without Partners and Jumble Station aims to make life more interesting and a lot more fun for the harried single parents and their little charges

Magical, funny party

2010-05-03T23:03:00.008+08:00

For a short three hours at least, our 50 single parents, mostly single mums and three single dads, and 120 little kids were able to forget their financial woes and have a rollicking good time. They were the special guests for our Magical Journey party held on May 2 2010 and many came with great expectations indeed, if not to win a prize at the lucky draw or to be entertained for the afternoon.

They weren’t disappointed, the event kicked off with some simple yet fun games one of which saw four men wrapping up an egg each with newspapers and having their precious treasure thrown force fully on the floor before a judge unwrapped it to see which egg was intact. The funny part was to have the female judges smashing two eggs and the lone male judge leaving both eggs intact!

Single father Adrian then had the crowd in stitches when he sashayed towards the stage to the tune of “Pretty Woman” and then proceeded to wow them with his mimed rendition of a half and half – he had painted his face and dressed himself as P Ramlee on one side and Saloma on the other side. So when he sang to single mum Suhaibah, he was the suave, heart throb crooner P Ramlee and when he turned to single father Boon, he was the dulcet sexy Saloma! Next he had single father Hasrun to don a wig and a guitar and sang “Have I told you lately that I love you” in tribute to PWP founders for helping him to get from zero to hero.

Sam Tee aka Uncle Button button-held his audience right from the beginning with his comic antics from cycling into the hall on his impossibly small bike to him letting his plates twirl atop a thin pole. He had the kids practically swarming the stage and clamouring to be his assistant while the single parents gaped and gawked at his fast sleight of hand acts. For many, the one hour slap stick humour Uncle Button put on was indeed a magical journey, one filled with fun and amusement all the way.

The event culminated in a lucky draw prize presentation with almost ¾ of the single parents walking off with a prize. Single mother Cindy Khong, 38 who has a 11 year old son Jinn Pen and and a 10 year old daughter Kinn Wei won the top prize of a 29inch TV. The delighted winner says that this is her biggest win and she can now return her 14inch TV which has been borrowed from her parents for the last 8 years since her hubby left her!

The winners and those who failed to win, nevertheless went home with a goodie bag filled with sponsored items from a RM10 KFC meal voucher from GDEX to sachets of vitamin C from Hovid, from shampoos and conditioners from Trends Unisex to the many little stationary items obtained from the fun fair coupons sponsored by Kevala yoga kakis. Newly registered single father Boon who has a 5 year old son describes it best in his SMS message after the event: “Thank you for all the wonderful blessings”. To all the friends and sponsors who helped to make the party the magically and heartwarmingly enjoyable event a Very Big Thank You indeed from Parents Without Partners Bhd!

Earthy feel to Earth Day

2010-05-01T02:00:00.003+08:00

Jumble Station was invited to participate in the two day Earth Day Celebration at the Kota Damansara Community Forest reserve and brought along its many pre-loved item.
In line with the policy of recycling pre-loved items to save the earth we were able to share with many of the local residents there about what Parents Without Partners and JS is all about.

Many were happy to learn that they could just give us a call and we’ll swing by their houses to collect stuff they want to let go provided of course the items are still in fairly good condition. We had also brought along some 40 bottles of homemade pickles that one single mum with four daughters had made to sell. May believes strongly in her pickles and promises that once ‘makan’ the customers will come back for more.

Remarkably, we managed to sell 17 bottles and we hope to sell off the rest at the next visit to Amcorp Mall. The pre-loved items were a nice attractive addition to our booth but many folks out there were not keen to buy the pre-loved items. Still for us, it proved to be an interesting weekend because we got to hear many people singing including Hijau singer Zainal Abidin who turned out to be mischievously lively and charming. He had the crowd in the palm of his hands and backed by a very strong choir, sang this green number with great gusto. Taking his pix up close and personal was great while his songs were lovely to listen to especially in the green surroundings. Bet the trees were swaying along with the mesmerizing beat too!

Take A ‘Magical Journey” with our single parents

2010-04-01T10:20:00.003+08:00

On May 2 2010, Parents Without Partners (PWP) and Jumble Station will be organizing its 3rd annual party for poor Single Parents. Themed “ A Magical Journey” we are planning to get a clown and a magician to come and entertain our invited guests – the single parents (single mums and single dads) so that for an hour or two, they will be able to put aside their fears and worries and just have a great, fun time.
Some 60 single parents and 120 of their kids will be at the Dream Centre Hall 3 at No: 2 Jalan 13/1 Petaling Jaya from 2pm -5pm. We’re planning to kick off with some ice-breakers led by co-founder Mary Anne where we’ll have parents and their kiddos playing games and generally getting to know each other as a team. This will be followed by a speech by co-founder Sanice Kam who hardly ever says a word but is great with food and administration stuff. This time we’re forcing her to take to the mike to share some thoughts with the single parents present and hopefully to rally them onwards to achieving greater successes.
Next on the agenda will be the clown performance and hopefully a magician or alternatively we will get a Michael Jackson look-alike to perform some slick moon walking moves, we reckon the adults and the kiddies should be able to recognize and enjoy the Malaysian MJ’s dance moves enough to want to emulate him!
With the performances over, it will be time to tuck in and we have single mother Nani’s delicious ayam berempah to eat our fill. At least in this way, we will be able to provide a service for single mum Nani who has 6 children to care for and works hard at her business which is located at the Damansara mosque, KL.
We’re now approaching various companies to ask for sponsorship of vouchers such as Mydin or Giant so that all the single parents there can use these vouchers to purchase groceries or other electrical items they may need. So if you have any jalan with companies willing to sponsor items or vouchers, do give us a call 016-2202958 to discuss.

Jumble Station meets Daybreak

2010-03-22T01:36:00.004+08:00

Jumble Station recently took a trip up north in Ipoh to meet with Daybreak an organisation that helps disabled adults and youngsters to master news skills. The purpose was to see how Jumble Station could get its single parents to earn extra cash while working from the comfort of their own home.

So there we were, single mum Suhaibah, single dad, Adrian, tailor Melini and yours truly headed northwards in a little Kelisa at 9am and arrived at the tin mining town around 12 noon. Once there we were met by Daybreak staff Danielle, Yoong and Ruth who took us off to a hearty mamak lunch and where we first made the acquaintance of Daybreak founder Datuk Sandra.

Datuk Sandra pioneered Daybreak through its many challenging years, 18 in all and was very keen to collaborate with other NGOs on mutually beneficial deals that would enable both parties to leverage on each other’s resources and skills. For former fashion designer Adrian it was easy as pie for him to teach the handicapped workers the art of beading but getting a few of them to really follow his beading pattern was tougher. What’s interesting to note is that there are many handicapped folks who are sewing from home for Daybreak and coming into the headquarters only when the need for additional training is needed or when visitors drop by to have a visit.

Meanwhile, Melini and Sue were taught the simple art of stitching an outline of a pattern thereby allowing for the pattern concerned to have a raised surface to closely resemble the quilting process. This was so easy to do that the duo mastered it pretty fast and expressed an interest in teaching others once they get back to Jumble Station.

Datuk Sandra then said that Daybreak would be happy to take any and all stitched pattern quilting that our single mothers could deliver but Adrian shared his view that it might be better for the single parents to learn to sew something more creative and thereafter sell them for a higher price. This proposal was accepted with alacrity by Datuk Sandra and the work done by JS single parents will be paid according to the grade of work achieved, with A being the highest and C, the most mediocre.

Before heading back to Kuala Lumpur we stopped by to have a delicious dinner – chicken with bean sprouts and topped that off by buying two boxes of chicken cooked in salt, yummy! Our stomachs filled to the brim, our next task was to identify the single parents capable and creative enough to participate with JS in this beading and quilted project. Meantime, we shall wait and see who among the many single parents on our list, will show the most interest.

2010-03-18T14:05:00.004+08:00

One may be a single father through biological means or through circumstances. Take Adrian for instance. A well known fashion designer among the Malay fashionista crowd once, he became an unintentional single father when the couple who rented a room in his flat at Angsana left behind their eldest child in his care when they chose to go back to their kampong with their second newborn daughter who was sickly.

Adrian personally took care of the little Joey and the two bonded as a family until she was 7 years old and ready for school in 2008. Her parents came back and took her back with them so that she could help take care of her younger siblings. Adrian who had never officially adopted Joey was shattered by the separation and as a result could not focus on his fashion design work. He lost his job, had his car taken away, was threatened with eviction by his landlord for failure to pay rent, had not eaten for 3 days and tried to commit suicide twice. He was a broken and beaten man when he came to Jumble Station.

Today he helps to manage Jumble Station’s outlets, drives a van to collect items and gets to see his little “princess” every school holiday. He is happy except for one thing – Joey had been complaining of pains in her head and an X-ray check showed that she had fluid in her brain that could be life threatening if she didn’t take care.

Adrian sought Dr Jong’s help to learn more about Joey’s condition and was told that at 10 years old, she was still too young to undergo the operation needed to relieve the pressure on her brain. Dr Jong informed a shattered Adrian that once Joey is 12 years old she would need to undergo an operation where a shunt would be inserted to drain the fluid from her brain. There is of course the possibility that the fluid might dry up and simply go away and that would be great for the single father and his little princess. But for now, Joey has to build up her immune system and ensure she never collapses because then it could be very dangerous. If she collapses, that could lead to blindness and brain damage!

Adrian does not have the means to pay for this much needed operation but he now has two years to build up his savings to do just that. This is what is now galvanising him to work hard at building on his fledgling Frontier business so that when the time comes for the operation, he will have the means to give his beloved Joey a new lease of life. Now he realises how with a little help from JS supporters who join Frontierfrenzz (http://www.frontierfrenzz.blogspot.com/) and are keen to stay healthy, he can generate the extra income to help give her a healthier future.

Healthy start to the Year of the Tigerrrr!

2010-02-27T01:56:00.003+08:00

Chap Goh Mei celebrations are over and we at Jumble Station decided to start the Year of the Tiger in a grrraphically different way – we opted to go more healthily forward. Today’s incident of a 21 year old asthmatic girl lying comatose in hospital drives home the message that one should never take one’s life or health for granted.

Combined this fear and the fact that single parents must find ways to make additional money to make ends meet at least without them having to leave their kids at home alone while they juggle their many responsibilities. After much cudgelling of the minds, we decided to try taking the multi-level marketing route to assist the single parents in earning what may someday be a passive income.

But which to pick – Herbal Life? Amway??…The list is endless but all of them appears to have products that are priced on the higher end and have been around for so long there is networking inertia and over-saturation. Then we came across one that is ideally suited for our target customer base – the middle to lower class buyers – where the affordability factor is an attractive carrot and the wide range of cutting edged, nanotechnological advanced health supplements is readily available.

The company – Frontier International - headed by Dr SJ Jong has been around since 2004 yet is a relatively rare and quite a find indeed. The company is now targeting the bumiputera market and the founders of JS felt that we could collaborate to achieve two aims – help single parents be more entrepreneurial and to increase their potential to make additional money.

Calling ourselves Frontierfrenzz, we now have single parents to start a ‘family tree’ with them at the top and all others below them as their downlines. Now when the down lines start buying their nutritional supplements from Frontier International, their uplines the single parent, will be able to enjoy the bonus which will be accumulated and translated into cash or a cash voucher for future purchases.

Frontierfrenzz is spearheaded by single mum June Chan a mother of two and yours truly, the co-founder of Parents Without Partners/Jumble Station which is an NGO that focused on assisting single parents in need. Single parents who are participating in this family tree include Adrian Ong, single father and van driver, single mums Sue, Doris, Julie Tan and Panjalai’s kids Kumanan and his sister Sujatha. We hope to recruit and train more so that they too can catch the vision of building their own little business in health and nutrition while helping others to stay healthy.

Since registration to be a distributor for Frontier is still free, it makes sense for the single parents to try and recruit as many new members who are willing to fork out sums to ensure a longer, safer life ahead. The icing on the cake will be if these single parents earn enough someday to go for incentive holidays both regionally and internationally and even perhaps win themselves a car or who knows, even a house!

Is this achievable, for sure especially since the products from Frontier International’s stable are already proven successes despite being low keyed, they are also a varied and ever expanding range that covers every conceivable health issue or woe. Some like Adrian are gung ho about accepting this new challenge others like Sue, Doris and Panajalai’s kids are still trying to feel their footing in the network marketing arena. The going will get a little easier if the targeted customers are willing to abandon buying from their usual outlets and ordering instead from our single parents/ This way, they help to take care of the growing financial needs of poor single parents while taking care of their own health in the most affordable manner. If you don’t have much money to give to the needy, this is the smarter way to do assist those in need hence our slogan “enrich single parents while enriching yourself.”

Of course active promotion is necessary. We were given our first chance to jointly promote JS and Frontierfrenzz during the MPSJ Chinese new year gathering hosted by Subang Adun YB Hannah Yeoh recently.

Another vitamin manufacturer Hovid has also given us some vitamin supplements that single parents can sell outright and pocket the difference. This route is another practical way of helping single parents willing to conduct promotions at the various outdoor mall while determinedly building up their own Frontier Family Tree to great success! We can only give this our best shot and isn't this far better than doing nothing and still expecting welfare?

For those who want to know more about Frontier International check out http://www.frontier2u.my/ or our blog http://www.frontierfrenzz@blogspot.com/ or want to work collaboratively with us as a team call/SMS Mary Anne Tan 0162202958 or email us at frontierfrenz@gmail.com today!.

Nestle chips in to help single parents

2010-02-05T12:49:00.008+08:00

For many of us who grew up poor, to be able to drink at least one cup of Milo then was ‘luxury’ indeed. Today, Milo is no longer a luxury but at times, about the only thing that poor children can have to fill their hungry bellies. Which is why when Parents Without Partners & Jumble Station sends groceries to the poorer Single Parents, we always include a tin or a packet of Milo along with other basic necessities such as Maggie mee, milk powder, cooking oil and beras.

More recently, PWP wrote in to Nestle, the giant manufacturer of such popular food staples asking to be included in its food for charity programme so that our food bill cost would be reduced while still being able to feed the needs out there.
Nestle very kindly and helpfully agreed to our request and late in January we were invited up to Nestle office at Damansara to collect our 10 goodie bags of Nestle products, comprising Maggie mee noodles, Nespray milk powder, Milo and Nestum. The goodie bags were promptly given out to needy single parents at Angsana Flats, USJ1 including single mums Panjalai, Suhaibah, Irene Thung, Mariammah, Mila, Siti Arfah, Venie, Letchmy and single fathers Adrian and Hasrun.

These 10 recipients will be the first of many more from Desa Mentari, Lembah Subang, Shah Alam and other areas in the Klang Valley who will be receiving Nestle’s largesse to make live a little easier for them. Kudos to Nestle for responding to such needs and it is hoped that more corporate organisations will step up to assist likewise even as they learn to balance their need to meet the bottom line while making a difference to society.

Livewire team decends on Jumble Station

2010-01-20T13:55:00.010+08:00

Jumble Station fairly crackled with electricity as a team of photographers came to film the topic closest to our heart – helping a single parent. The crew of six from Livewire who were attending a Charge-Up conference were visiting JS for the first time and were fairly bristling with excitement.

The conference was a creative event designed to train a new generation of multimedia work crew capable of handling all things related to photography, videography, sound equipment, movie making etc. So the youngsters from as far as Miri and Ipoh came all prepared with a script to photograph the making and helping of a single parent at JS.

Our two helpers Adrian and Meksue were roped in to act as a couple while Mala’s two daughters Nur Ain and Nur Fazlin became their kids. The plot was about a couple who were originally happy but the hubby’s gambling habit tore the façade of happiness apart. They quarrel violently and the wife is pushed out of the house with her clothes thrown out as well. She goes out in tears with her two kids and they sleep in the corridors where JS staff (yours truly) finds them and rescues them. Lian See, JS co-founder then proceeds to interview and takes them under JS care. Simple right? But boy the photography took several hours and Kumeran was kind enough to allow us the use of his flat where the posing and the ‘acting’ could be carried out realistically and more importantly where the shots could be captured creatively. Shooting out in the corridor for the sake of artistic creativity and a touch of realism wasn't easy either - the smell and poor condition made it an appalling place to be at but that's the reality of some single mums who get kicked out of their matrimonial home and end up in the street so to speak. Helping single parents like these from the depths of despair to reach a comfortable state of confidence is exacty what JS aims to do... giving single parents the helping hand to rediscover themselves after a painful setback..Now we’re waiting for the final edited version from the Livewire pros to see how the project panned out!

Secure start to a new school term

2010-01-08T00:57:00.003+08:00

Some 100 children of poor single parents were blessed this time around with brand new school bags and uniforms not to mention some stationery as well. This was made possible with the help of some individuals and groups more precisely Secure Parking, the parking behemoth and Sharm's students from the Kevala Wholistic Yoga group.

Secure Parking very generously agreed to finance the purchase of 100 school bags costing around RM59.90 each and some stationary as well as school socks while The Yoga kakis pooled their funds to help with the purchase of new uniforms and long pants. Parents without Partners Bhd’s president Lim Lian See had a tough time buying the school uniforms, pants and shirts from Mydin while sorting out who gets what sizes was another major challenge.

Still the smiles on the kids’ faces as they slipped the new bags onto their small shoulders was a joy to behold and many would have rushed and crowded into Venie’s small flat at Lembah Subang if we had not put them into batches and given them a specific time to collect their “Back 2 School” items.

At Angsana, Subang Mewah, USJ1 a low keyed Christmas celebration was organised to coincide with the Back2School programme where single parents from Puchong, Angsana and Klang were invited to attend. The event drew an enthusiastic response from the single parents who could make it and the highlight was to have tiny tots walking off delightedly with a bag that appeared somewhat bigger than their physique. So to all our sponsors, well wishers and collaborators, a Very Big Thank You for securing such a lovely start to a new school term.

Christmas with the YWCA PJ

2009-12-18T09:17:00.005+08:00

Christmas is coming...the goose is getting fat, please put a ringgit in the old lady's hat, if you haven't got a ringgit, 50sen will do, if you haven't got that too, then God Bless U!

Christmas came a little early for our single parents kids this year with the YWCA of Section 20 PJ hosting a party for 30 of our little ones. The Genesis United (Gen2) Cell Group members were on hand to sing some Christmas carols to inject the lively Christmas spirit followed soon after by a clown performance.

The clown who doubled up as a magician caught the rapt attention of the little ones with his slick sleight of hand tricks from turning a straight magic wand into a lifeless piece of stick to the release of a pigeon after first dousing the pan with a ring of fire! Probably the most captivating act was that of delivering a cute little bunny from his seemingly empty bag and it had all the kids clamouring to pat the little bunny!

President Kemmy (pix) and her team did a superb job with the goodie bags, the food and the spirit of camaraderie that pervaded the YWCA house where the party was held. For sure the kids had a terrific time and for many it was their first ever introduction to what joys Christmas can bring and what it means to many of us, the more privileged ones.

And lest we forget.....A Very BLESSED CHRISTMAS to everyone from us folks at JUMBLE STATION.

Movie Magic

2009-12-11T00:01:00.006+08:00

By Mary Anne Tan
It’s been quite a while since we went out to the movie theatre, with DVDs being so cheap and all but still nothing beats the thrill of being seated in a plush cinema complete with sen-surround system to hear even the smallest whisper.

Recently, Golden Screen Cinema on the 3rd floor of Summit Shopping Centre played the generous host to some single parents kids and kids from underprivileged backgrounds. The original plan was for around 30 kids to be invited to see “Cloudy with a touch of meatball” but since school was still on, it was really difficult trying to meet the expected target.

Several homes that Lian See had originally invited pulled out at the eleventh hour for personal reasons and left us at Jumble Station really flat footed. We eventually managed to get some 16 children and 5 adults to show up for the show and boy, what a thrill it was.

The kids who woke up early and had to skip breakfast were treated to a relatively delightful breakfast of mee siam, sausages, nuggets, cakes and drinks by Chatterbox. The Malay children mingled easily with the Indian kids as they happily got to know each other through the impromptu games we had while waiting for the GSC to open its screen doors.

Our hosts David from chatterbox, Nelson and Thomas from GSC were more than happy to have their photos taken with the irrepressible youngsters who took the opportunity to ape legendary pop idol Michael Jackson in his classic pose – one hand tipping his hat forward, the other stretched straight out or the other one with their feet crossed over and their hands outstretched over their heads.

For single mother Nisha it was her first time ever in a cinema and she’s already 25years old now. Many other children were also overawed with the cavernous auditorium, the darkness they were plunged into and the air conditioning! However, once the screen came alive with the antics of Flint the wacky inventor, the chill factor went out and the laughter set in. By the end of the movie, the little ones came out with huge smiles and willingly admitted that they had thoroughly enjoyed the entire event.

So a great big thank you to David of Chatterbox for keeping our little ones tummies filled and to the GSC staff for making time for the less privileged and bringing joy and laughter into their normally drab lives. GSC has said they plan to do this again and we’re looking forward to bringing more fun and happiness into single parents and their kids lives once again! Will our kids get a chance at seeing The Frog and the Princess next????

Parents without Partners and Jumble Station its recycle arm - are singularly focused on helping single parents in need. If you have items (we take all except plants and animals) to donate, SMS or call Anne 016-2202958.

A 'cool gift' for new single dad

2009-11-27T12:30:00.004+08:00

Hasrun Manaf became a single father recently when his wife who has been working in Johore Baru for the last 2 years, demanded her freedom in August, just days before Hari Raya. He got custody of his eldest son Md Harith Hamizan, 9 years and Md Harith Haikal, 7 years while his youngest son 5, is still being cared for by his wife's mother in Johore.

For Hasrun or Yun as he is more commonly known around Angsana Flats, this has been a particularly painful period, one that he was ill prepared for and still struggling to come to terms with. For one, he is realising just how difficult it is to be a single father and be the sole provider for his growing boys. Yun’s take home pay as a lorry driver is only RM1,000 a month and of this he has to pay RM380 for his flat, leaving the balance of RM680 to survive till the next payday.

Now, although his youngest son is with the grandmother, under the syariah law, he is still committed to sending RM100 a month for his son’s upkeep. Fortunately for Yun, Jumble Station has been a real blessing to him in two ways – giving him groceries (rice, oil, biscuits, Milo etc) each month and enabling him to earn extra income on weekends and holidays.

See he was already helping us out way before he became a single father – he’d been assisting us with the transporting and collecting of items from the homes of the various donors and had been paid RM100 – RM120 each time, so aiding him as a single father was a natural extension.

His willingness to assist – going to as many as 5-6 houses in a day, usually a Sunday or a public holiday - without demanding to be paid for every house he goes to has enabled Jumble Station to save lots while still offering a great service for those willing to let go bulky items without having to pay for the disposal of the items themselves.

More recently however, Yun faced a terrible setback. With only RM20 left and two weeks before his next pay day, Yun happilyy help us out and received RM100 from jumble station for his efforts, despite being sick with a bad cold. While returning from Puchong he was stopped by police and asked to show his IC. Feeling very unwell, he uncharacteristically handed over his entire wallet with the newly earned RM100 to the policeman. When he got home, he discovered to his horror that the RM100 was missing from his wallet! Yun was bitterly crushed – he had promised to bank in RM100 to his ex-wife so she could buy milk and other items for their youngest son but now the RM100 was missing!

When JS learnt of this we immediately banked in RM100 into his ex-wife’s account and donated another RM100 for him to survive till the next pay day or till his next item collection event. Yun, normally a very quiet and private chap was in tears. He later SMSed this message “ Terima Kasih Sis - God Bless You!”

More recently, Yun was further blessed when he received a brand new Samsung refrigerator to replace his old one that was malfunctioning – it was no longer cool, the door was off its hinges and it was guzzling lots of electricity to boot!

Yoga and Kevala practitioner Sharmini and her group of yoga students spontaneously got together to raise the funds needed to help poor single parents when they learnt about Jumble Station’s efforts to help single parents in need. They went out and purchased a fridge from Tesco and no one could be more pleased than this deservingly helpful single father.

For a single parent, willing to ‘fish’ for himself instead of just waiting for handouts, this is truly a ‘cool treat, a super cool incentive’ indeed to help out others and be blessed in return! If Yun could, he’d SMS this same message to all you kind yoga folks out at Sharmini’s class - “Terima Kasih - God Bless You .. All” As it is, his smile says it best!

Seeking gift givers...

2009-11-04T10:30:00.005+08:00

Frens, Jumble Station will be organising a number of activities in the month of December to celebrate Christmas and the coming new year/ school term of 2010. First off we're planning a Christmas party for 30 children of single parents on December 9 together with the YWCA and it would be great if some people out there with nice toys or stationery items could donate it to us to be giftwrapped for this party. The YWCA will take care of the makan but gifts and carol singing will be our responsibility ... singing carols is no problem but finding the nice gifts that's our challenge so anyone out there who's got nice toys to give away.. here's your chance to bring smiles to the little ones.
Also on Dec 1 we will be having a free medical camp for single parents and the poor folks at Lembah Subang from 9am-2pm and since its a Tuesday, we need to have some free gift items to attract folks to attend the medical clinic - anyone have door gifts as inducement to ensure we get the 300 people expected?

Come January 3 2010 we will be having a Back-to-School party for single parents and their kids where we plan to give them a new school bag, uniform, a pair of shoes, socks and stationery for the new school term - some 200 are expected and we've already got 100 girls primary uniform but we'll need boys' primary uniforms and a few baju kurung uniforms as well.

So if anyone knows of anyone who can help donate or get us the uniforms cheaply made, just give us a holler or SMS 016-2202958 Anne.

Joyfully enjoyable at Jaya33

2009-10-31T02:42:00.006+08:00

Jumble Station was given the opportunity to promote PWP to the office workers and shoppers at Jaya33 recently. Naturally we jumped at this chance to try out a new location especially since the management of Jaya33 was kind enough to offer it to us for free.

So from last Thursday to Sunday, we turned up right on the dot or earlier and proceeded to promote both our mission and our donated items. We brought along an assortment of items, not knowing what would attract the buying crowd and took great pains to chat about PWP and how single parents are being assisted in their hour of need.

Of course there were many other traders there on the concourse as well but JS was the only charity group for that long weekend so we made the most of it. We shared, chatted, acted neighbourly and made new friends even as we tried to lure visitors to our stall itself.

Turns out the buyers weren’t all that keen on the little knick knacks, little trinkets or no matter how colourful they were) cute stuffed toys. What they wanted were more serious stuff from books to clothes, bags to watches. By Sunday, we had it down pat and brought mostly novels and children’s colourful books.

We made many new friends like the Pak Cik and his cookie cutter wife who was a whiz with cakes, cookies and packed food, there was Patricia, Kathlene, Christina, and caught up with some ‘older’ friends like Janice of Rantau PR and our happy fren J Lo.

Even Adrian who abhorred selling at Amcorp was lured in by the genteel crowd enough to make a pitch at selling some new clothes for RM35 each. Overall, the experience was exciting and he’s promised to join me again at Jaya33 should the opportunity arise once more!

Unforgettable Deepavali

2009-10-17T23:02:00.007+08:00

For many of the poorer single parents at Lembah Subang, this is probably one of the most unforgettable Deepavali ever, not to mention the fact that it is also the most colourful for them so far. Why?

Well, for one thing they received an unexpected 5 black bags full of colourful and lovely looking Deepavali clothes just two days before Deepavali. The clothes were donated by the wife of one of the owners of the most popular Indian food chain The Lotus Restaurant who realised that she could bring some joy and happiness just by donating her own clothes and those of her kids.

The clothes, still in pristine condition and expensively and beautifully textured not forgetting colourful too, drew lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ from the single parents and their kids. Some kids even asked if more of such clothes would be coming in the near future? We told them we hope so!

Topping off their joy was the fact that some 10 Indian single parents received RM100 each to help make Deepavali more enjoyable while those who lacked beds, mattresses, cupboards, gas stoves, beddings and toys were able to also choose from the lorry-load that was brought to their flats at Lembah Subang today. There was even a massage chair that had been donated and will go to single mother Normah’s elderly mum who has been complaining of acute aches and pains!

Jumble Station’s single parent co-ordinator Venie, her sister and friend were on hand to receive the items and were able to secure the help of two men to assist in carting the items up to the rented flat where those who needed the items most, could help themselves to it.

Over the last two years Jumble Station has been able to send the donated items to the homes of the single parents at various areas including Old Klang Road, Desa Mentari, Angsana Flats, Shah Alam, Klang, Sungai Buloh and Lembah Subang. The snag is that one tends to forget to snap a pix of the handover of such household or electrical products because well, no one brought a camera along in the rush to get the lorry and logistics running smoothly.

This time however, we were well prepared and hence you can see the happy smiles on the recipient’s face. For those who are sceptical of JS fulfilling your request that single parents get the items you donated, such pictures speak a thousand words : Thanks for your kindness and we at JS truly do appreciate your kind and continous support! A very Happy Deepavali to all Hindus.

Winning (small) in Cimb’s photo competition

2009-10-16T09:15:00.006+08:00

Jumble Station took part in CIMB’s MyCause ’s photo competition launched in July this year and ended in September. We had sent in 5 photos and all except one was centred on the topic of Single Father, Silent Heroes. The remaining one was a photo of some Indian kids peering through a slice of bread at the world.

One entry the one of a sombre looking single father on a bicycle with five happy kids taken just outside of Jumble Station’s shop won a consolation prize in the competition. That and the kids with bread slices was put on display at the CIMB office during the prize presentation event, yesterday.

Of course we were hoping for a big win – the first prize was RM30,000 for the photographer and RM100,000 for the charity featured but the competition was really tough – some 4,600 entries came flooding in and the judges had a tough time picking the winners.

So to have two of our photos in the 100 best photos selected for exhibition by CIMB is already a great miracle and the RM2,000 cash prize that came with the bicycle photo win was a really nice consolation ‘bonus’. CIMB chairman Tan Sri Nor Md Yusof who turned out to be Adrian Ong's customer during his fashion designing days, urged JS to not give up but to try again next year.

What’s more, Tengku Zarina Tengku Ibrahim, CIMB's director of sponsorships said that CIMB has additional monies for deserving charitable causes beyond the photo competition programmes and that Jumble Station is definitely one of those it will be keen to collaborate with. Now that’s something to look forward too right?

JS@ the e@curve

2009-10-15T04:44:00.002+08:00

Jumble Station recently took part in the Joujou & Shugi Toy Art Mart Vendor at e@Curve along with 31 other traders most of them selling clothes, trinkets, shoes and fashionable gee-gaws.

We were all there bright and early before even the lights in some corners were switched on. There was an air of camaraderie between many of the younger fashionista entrepreneurs and it turned out JS was the only charity priviledged enough to have been given a booth there and a free one at that!

The traders were placed in two wings, the North and the South wings of the e@Curve and it was aptly named alright because most of the crowd appeared to hang around the North wing while only a few straggled through the South side enroute to and from the centre atrium where an LG Starz dance and singing audition was being carried out as well.

Still we took it in a more positive light, preferring to focus not so much on the sales aspect but more on the promotional aspects of creating greater awareness for JS. See we figured that since most of the folks in the Damansara and e@curve shopping mall were the richer folks, they’d be more interested in donating their unwanted items rather than adding to their household clutter. So we were more than active in handing out our postcards to the ones who passed our way and talked to whoever was willing to stop for a while and learn more about what JS does.

People like Chad Merchant, an American who loves travelling and staying to absorb the cultural diversities of Malaysia and Asia was one of those who promised to highlight what we’re doing and the kind of handicrafts we had to offer. Then there was Quachee, his brother and mother who turned out to be fellow Malaccans and who were Straits born to boot. What’s more they turned out to be related to Eddy an antique dealer whom I’d just gotten to know for about a week – talk about a small world indeed. JS was supposed to be there again on Sunday but a bad case of the flu bug felled this stalwart worker and we had to take a badly needed rest! Well there’s always another time, another day for the e@curve!

A Fun way to disburse 'funds'

2009-10-03T08:21:00.003+08:00

What do you do if you have loads of funfair tickets that you’ve bought and you’re not free to spend them? Give them away to some charitable group with lots of kids who can appreciate it That was exactly what Eng Meng, a housewife with four kids did recently. She had bought up some RM300 worth of funfair tickets for her church fun fair – Trinity Church – but wasn’t able to go because she and her kids had to scoot off to Sarawak for a family matter.

Jumble Station was asked to make use of the tickets which we gladly accepted only to realise that the fun fair event coincided with the planned visit of 100 of our single parents children to KLCC Petronas Twin Tower as well. Undaunted, Adrian, Judy and I drove to the fair grounds – the church premises itself – at Kelana Jaya area and proceeded to look for items to buy back to give to the single parents.

Boy oh boy, the place was huge, the crowd tremendous, the games were aplenty, the food banyak nya… but items to purchase – hardly any. Those toys we saw, they had to be purchased direct via cash, no coupons. We could only eat ourselves fat as pigs cos there were food aplenty or play games till we were tired as hell. With each game costing RM5 at least and food ranging from RM10 upwards, it was a difficult decision indeed. In the end, we each ate just one meal, played one game of drop the coin into the water and spent the rest on the only sure win game – the Blessed Draw game.

This was where for RM5 you could scrabble in a bucket, pick a scrap of paper with a number on it and claim your prize. Adrian had set his heart on a bicycle for his precious Nisha while Judy and I were more pragmatic – any worth while prize will do. In the end, our luck wasn’t that er.. blessed – we ended up with loads of snacks, mineral water bottles, some tinned food, a couple of brightly coloured balls and a plastic mug or two. Still we had a nice time and the fun fair certainly gave me an idea of what to do in the event JS needs to raise more funds in the very near future!

Recyclists gather!

2009-09-03T10:01:00.005+08:00

Jumble Station was one of the newest kiddo in the green, eco movement when it took part in the No Plastic Bag Bazaar held at Noble House at Jalan Bukit Bintang last weekend. The Recyclist movement is one very vibrant group indeed as seen first hand with so many young professionals connected mostly via face-book, making a beeline for the restaurant turned marketplace and where pre-loved items were the signature dishes on offer rather than food itself.

We were given a cosy little corner right at the entrance so that those entering and departing could hardly miss us. This being our first time participating in the No Plastic Bag Bazaar, although for many of the vendors there it was their 2nd time, we had no real idea what to bring to whet the appetites of the potential buyers.

So accordingly we dragged along our regular collectibles from music CDs, to stuffed toys, knick knacks and a boxful of dated costume jewellery. Well the eco-supporters that thronged the bazaar were drawn more to the costume jewellery and the stuffed toys with a sprinkling of others gunning for the more interesting collectibles. The furry friends farm folks loved our collection of furry friends and bought em off us to decorate their table and must say it certainly brightened up the otherwise stark table indeed.

Other vendors who brought along clothes by the bagfuls had an equally busy time as vintage wear mostly ruled the roost this time around but of course there were those who went for more eclectic designs and wearables.

In between we were royally entertained by various local celebrities and fund raising became more fun with the auctioning off of clothes and gear by the likes of Hannah Lo, Xandria Ooi and Amber Chia. Oh yeah Adrian single father and JS helper grabbed the opportunity to have an autograph from Amber Chia and have a shot of him standing next to her, not once but twice! Seems the first time she had her lovely eyes hidden behind sunglasses! Overall it was a great time and we’d love to participate in more enviro/eco friendly events like these. Kudos to Janet Lee and gang for organising this very interesting event.

Vintage Feel

2009-08-12T02:31:00.006+08:00

Let’s confess it. How many of us had always wanted to be seen driving a priceless, expensive, vintage vehicle? Many for sure, but most of us can’t hope or even dream of ever possessing one let alone be allowed to drive one in our lifetime!

So we’ll settle for the next best thing – be driven around town in one and have others not so fortunate stare at us in shock, surprise, envy? The Malaysian Singapore Vintage Car Register or MSVCR in short comprising owners of vintage and classic cars were kind enough to lend their prized possessions to bring excitement into the lives of the under privileged.

Some nine charity organisations involved in caring for the disabled, the abandoned, the poor etc were invited to join the vintage car owners on a Sunday getaway ride to Klang. Parents Without Partners (PWP) Bhd which focuses on assisting poor Single Parents went along for the joy ride with 17 children of single parents from Lembah Subang. It was a first vintage car outing for PWP and our youngsters and we were more worried about maybe losing the kids amongst the huge crowd of youngsters that were running helter skelter between the many models of cars so old, yet so classically beautiful.

Despite being an admitted vehicle dunce, one could still palpably see and feel the love, pride and tender care that was being showered on the vintage vehicles lining the roadway at the Selangor Spastic Centre in PJ. Every vehicle there gleamed and sparkled, each outshining the other in fenders, bumpers, designs, make and models. The more sporty convertibles naturally drew more admirers but here and there some unusual vehicles too drew amused glances like the so very hippie looking van scrawled, er, painted with beatnik slogans and drawings.

With a vigourous wave of the Malaysian flag, the entire entourage joyfully set off from the starting point at the Spastics Centre and meandered their way through the busy PJ roads cut into the fast moving Plus highway and zoomed towards Klang. Along the way, it was amusing to see how the traffic marshals, looking more like Nazi soldiers in their war helmets and tank like vehicle as well as the ad hoc volunteer ‘traffic policemen’ who were able to direct the traffic at strategic junctions so we wouldn’t take the wrong route and could drive without any mishap.

Comfortably ensconced in a red convertible Triumph with my aviation engineer driver who fended off my queries about pricing and cost with the ‘OSA lah” it was nice to see first hand how different the cars of yesteryears were compared to those of today. For one there was no air conditioning so it was highly dependent on the natural breeze, there was no radio or tape player so you had to whistle or sing on your own, the horn was a little black button on the wood veneer dashboard far away from the steering wheel that’s we’re so used to.

Still with the wind in face and the sun roasting above, it was great to see the many smiles, winks, honks and envious glances from drivers and passengers in the more mundane, less sleek cars of today. The vintage motorcade made a stop at the Tanjung seafood restaurant for lunch where the little ones were treated to rice, meat and fish dishes followed by ice-cream, fruits and cupcakes.

One vintage car owner then topped off the meal with a lively rendition of a Hindi song, complete with the dance routine that drew smiles, laughter and photo-taking on cell phones by the highly amused crowd. Once lunch was over, everyone made a beeline for their favourite classic car and back to PJ we all zipped through. All in all, it was really a vintage experience, a driving sensation of what it was like during a bygone era and the ‘purrfect’ power of the vehicle even in today’s chaotic traffic situations. The kids too don’t know much about cars but they all agreed it was a heady, powerful feel and a smashingly good ride in the bargain! Kudos to all MSVCR members who helped to make this the unforgettable ride of their lives.

Jumble Station at Jaya 1

2009-07-18T12:17:00.002+08:00

How times have changed! Back in 1983, I used to walk past the area on my way to work at the Star as a young rookie reporter and it was just a factory whose name I can’t ever recall. Yesterday, I revisited the area and what a transformation the area has undergone. Gone was the unknown factory premises and in its place was a spanking new Jaya 1 - shiny, sparkling new corporate offices intermingled with a multitude of eating outlets on various levels turning the place into a great place for discovery minded folks. Now, residents and students, families and mobile professionals are spoilt for choice between the Old Town Kopitiam shop to the Secret Recipe, Starbucks to the Duck King restaurant and many, many more.

Not surprisingly to ensure Jaya 1 becomes a magnet for day-trippers and night goers, the management has latched onto the bazaar concept so that one can browse and shop, bargain and haggle while waiting for one’s meal or drink to be served. Jumble Station was recently invited to participate gratis as part of the management’s efforts to connect with the less advantaged and we were more than happy to set up stall there when the clarion call is given.

Together with volunteer Kelly who happens to be a whiz at gift wrapping, we took up two tables and displayed our creative crafts and some collectibles including a train made from recycled metal parts, a heritage miniature Nonya bridal gown and a bear basket of flowers.

While the crowd wasn’t that plentiful as yet, Jaya 1 looks promising enough especially after the management shared their vision of opening up a more permanent area for NGOs to be known as Community Connections where charity organisations can sell their items for free while promoting their activities to the many patrons of the shops at Jaya 1. Should this become a reality, Jaya 1 could well rival the likes of other weekend marts and draw in a much bigger retail buying crowd with the strong purchasing power to boot. So all you folks out there looking for great buys while doing your bit for charity - drop by at Jaya 1 to support single parents in need!

What a blast for Single Parents

2009-07-09T11:28:00.003+08:00

Parents Without Partners Bhd, the NGO whose social entrepreneurial arm is Jumble Station, successfully held its annual party for single parents on July 5 2009. Despite the fact that it was held at the Dream Centre sports arena and was rather hot, the 60 single mothers and three single fathers, along with the 200 or so kids that turned up had a fantastically great time indeed.

First off they were able for the first time in their lives to enjoy a full fledged fashion show by our Jumble Station volunteers in which some 15 models took to the floor in a catwalk that had most viewers mesmerised.

The fashion show was themed along the lines of single parent so there were little kids taking to the catwalk with adults and walking and posing for photographs like they were professionals. Two kinds of dressing were flaunted – the casual, easy going designs and the semi formal evening wear.

After Lim Lian See, PWP’s president and co-founder of Jumble Station gave her speech, a slide presentation on activities that Jumble Station had been conducting since 2007 was featured allowing those single parents who had missed on those events to see for themselves how others had enjoyed or benefited from events organised just them. The events ranged from radio and TV interviews of single parents needs and woes by Bernama TV and Radio 24 to the rousing free Medical Camp in March and launch of Urban Station in Kuala Lumpur in April this year.

This was followed by a lively rendition of country line dancing to the tune of Billy Ray Cyrus’ runaway country hit Accky Breaky Heart. The dancers meanwhile had wisely ditched their formal evening gown and donned instead cowboy pants, shirts and boots, not forgetting the really rugged looking cowboy hats.

The highlight of the party was the lucky draw where some 20 single parents were able to walk off with lovely prizes, ranging from a brand new Panasonic refrigerator sponsored by CK Lim, to a 21 inch Pensonic TV sponsored by IT firm The Media Shoppe and even to porcelain collectible dolls donated by Kelly from Hardar Gift Shop!

The party was made all the more satisfying by a hearty Hi Tea spread sponsored by IT organisation Pikom and consumed with great gusto by the really hungry single parents and their equally hungry kids. Topping off the entire celebration was the goodie bags courtesy of GDEX where each single parent was given either a toaster, an iron or a hair dryer while the little ones were given a towel, a notepad and a miniature GDEX truck.

The single parents expressed satisfaction and joy with many stating that they had never felt so wanted and cared for in their lives. Many more said they wouldn’t want to miss next year’s Single Parents Day celebration and to be sure to include them in our invitation next year. They also said there should be more of such get-together occasions so that they could connect with each other better. We couldn’t agree more with that view!

Ayam Berempah and Angels

2009-07-04T05:18:00.003+08:00

Here’s one practical way to help a single parent in need – utilise his or her skills to help other charitable organisation and make some income in the process. Joyce Leong, our volunteer wanted to help raise funds for her other favourite charity – the Angel Home for disadvantaged children – while at the same time help a single mother in need.

She came up with this solution – pay RM600 to a single mum from Jumble Station to cook some food and then get her pals to buy up the Angels’ food and funfair coupons so that the food will be all bought up – thereby killing two birds with one stone.

Pretty smart move actually and one that worked very well. Single mother Nani who has 6 young children to bring up was the one tapped for this event because her signature dish, the ayam berempah is the one that is mouth-watering enough to get buyers lining up.

So there we were, at the MCA premises at OUG firing up a spicy storm, getting some 120 pieces of chicken all spicily fried and little bowls of rice all steamed up for the hungry crowd. Of course there were competition all around, it being a food and fun fair after all but Nani’s fragrant and freshly fried chicken smell was powerful enough to waft through and irresistibly draw the hungry folks to her stall located right at the end of the open air premises. And surprisingly, despite coming in much later than the other participants, within less than 3 hours, Nani’s ayam berempah was all sold out with latecomers having to make do with tiny fragments to whet their appetites.

For Adrian, this food and fun fair is an eye opener and a precursor to what to expect the next time Jumble Station organises something similar to raise its own funds. In the meantime, for those of you looking to contribute to something similar, why not take a leaf from Joyce Leong’s example and kill two birds with one charitable stone!

To fish or not to fish--that's the dilemma!

2009-06-05T00:41:00.004+08:00

We’ve all heard the saying “Give someone a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach ‘em to fish and they’ll eat for a lifetime.” But what happens if the learner doesn’t fancy mastering the art of fishing…what then?

Well then perhaps the smarter move is to find what the learner really wants to learn and then give him the tools of the trade to make particular mastery of the skills needed a real possibility.

Single parents by virtue of the fact they have kids to fuss over, generally don’t make for good or reliable students. Some folks wonder why with all the ‘free courses’ available in the marketplace more single parents can’t garner the skills they need to get on with life.

Take Rainah Kinsang for example. It’s been exactly a year and six months since she became a single mother after her hubby drowned while spearfishing in an abandoned property development site in Subang. This single mother of four boys struggled to raise them single-handedly, found it too tough and promptly packed them off to their grandparents in Sabah while she returned to Subang ostensibly to make something of herself.

She was offered a fully paid 2-year course to learn how to do facial and hairdressing by the YWCA training team. She attended for less than a month and dropped out for good. Seems she didn’t mind the course but the enforced live-in requirement grated on her need for total freedom hence her sudden departure from a course that others less privileged were dying to get into.

She moped around for a couple of months, mulling what to do next, then a friend suggested they both go into the tailoring business. Although not exactly skilled with the needle and thread, she was game for it. Initially it scared her a little but she thought the better insurance hedge would be to sell some ‘bundle-like” clothes so she could meet her share of the rental while taking the opportunity to learn sewing skills.

Fortunately for her, Jumble Station had just received several brand new clothes that still bore the price tagged labels and these were passed on to her in her spanking new shop just two doors away from us. Displaying brand new clothes for sale is the easy part, pricing it at an affordable level is another and here Rainah has had to be guided closely to ensure she does not under-price or over-price the items donated to her for onward sale. It’s hoped that this hand-holding will have to be eased off soon and that she will learn to be more business savvy as time goes on. For now though, instead of lounging on a comfy 3-seater sofa flicking through magazines, she’s been prodded pointedly to take up tailoring and learn to sew from Melini her fellow Sabahan business partner.

Then there’s also Liza, an unwed mother who apparently has learnt the art of doing facials but for some strange reason never seems to stick long enough at it to earn enough to feed year old Alyesha. Jumble Station had assisted her by loaning RM4,000 last year so she could buy 2nd hand facial equipment and furniture but except for an occasional foray into facials, she has hardly made enough to feed a church mouse!
Where once she was able to utilise some space in a hairstyling salon, now she is forced to work from her rented flat because the hairstyling business ‘closed shop’ recently. At RM35 a facial, one would think getting customers around the Subang Mewah neighbourhood should be easy a pie.
Not so, it has been tough as nails because now more people are cost conscious and facials are deemed a luxury not a necessity. She now has a fishing rod in hand, but Liza realises she will need to have the right bait (print some flyers, viral market her skills etc) in order to lure in the customers, the question is, is she and many other single parents, up to the task as yet? Only time will tell!

HELP-ing hand from HELP University College

2009-05-02T22:36:00.003+08:00

One of the key factors that Jumble Station puts priority on is the need for education for the children of Single Parents. Why? Education is the passport to future success, the lynchpin that can break the chains and bonds of poverty.

But what if the single family concerned does not have the finance to fund the child’s education? Previously one would have just shrugged it off and gone straight to the working/ employment pool. Today there are other options and one of them is to tap into the potential offered in the area of scholarships by the various organisations.

Hence, when Jumble Station got a chance to meet with Mrs Paul Chan, the co-founder of the well established HELP University College we took the opportunity to broach the subject of scholarships for needy folks – especially for the children of poor single parents. A concerned Mrs Chan was more than willing to offer a full scholarship to deserving children of single parents wanting to pursue a degree here in Malaysia.

Spurred by the desire to see as many deserving smart youngsters get the tertiary education they deserve Mr and Mrs Paul Chan co-founded HELP Uni College which has since gone on to make great strides in private education. Now she agreed to extend a HELPing hand to one of ours.

Sujata, daughter of single mother Panjalai from Angsana Flats in USJ1 was offered a full scholarship to do her foundation and a three-year degree course in accountancy. Despite the distance – from Angsana to the Kommuter to KL Sentral to Damansara – Sujata expressed joy and happiness at this golden opportunity to pursue her studies in a well established and highly respected institute. The only snag is that it costs quite a bit for transport – RM5 x 2 = RM10 to and from the school each day and Jumble Station is hoping to find an individual willing to commit to RM500 a month just so Sujata can travel and have a bit of lunch for the next four years as she pursues a course in accounting.

Jason Kwan is another bright student keen to pursue a career in advertising. We’re approaching The One Academy for a possible scholarship but in the meantime, are there any kind souls out there, ready and willing to invest in educating a bright yet poor student? If so just buzz or send an SMS to 016-2202958 and we can chat .

Say hello to Urban Station

2009-04-24T00:02:00.008+08:00

Urban Station, a collaboration between DUMC’s Urban KL Fellowship catering to the homeless, the street people and Jumble Station, focused on Single Parents in need, made its debut on April 22 2009.

Urban Fellowship of Street Ministry as all of us know it has been around for quite some time and is located at the 1st floor of the old Klang Bus Station. Back in its heyday the bus station was a hive of activity with many buses heading out from KL to the rest of the other states. Today however it acts as a feeder terminal for the Klang and KL centric buses.

JS was approached to assist urban Fellowship set up a thrift shop in the heart of KL specifically to help create job opportunities for its many street folks, most of whom find it tough to get anyone to give them a job. Since Jumble Station believes in partnering others to assist the needy plus it makes it easier for others to reach us in KL instead of in Subang Jaya, the collaboration made a lot of sense to both partie

Urban Station was born from this need to recycle items, re-energise humans and rebuild lives. In line with that we began employing a young homeless couple to assist us in the shop but the weekend before the launch, they scooted off, never to be seen again.

Ah well, some people blow the opportunities given to them, others make good use of them. Now we have a more matured woman and a street savvy yet very teachable guy willing to assist us in making Urban Station a success.
So folks, if you are around the KL bus station area, do drop by with your friends and buy an item or two to help the needy. Proceeds after overheads will go towards the needs of the street folks and single parents who are poor so every helping hand in making Urban Station a success will be mightily appreciated.

Just for the launch we had DUMC senior pastor Daniel Ho, CES director Pastor Margaret Loy and Jumble Station co-founder Lim Lian See cutting the ballooned ribbon while our JS dancers performed a short country line dance to the beat of Achky Breaky heart song and I must say we were a refreshing change, adding both colour and youthful zest to this once very quiet place.

A big thanks to all our fiesty boot stompers from Adrian, Lian See, Joyce Leong, Mae Ane, Noni, Meksue, Eng Yao and DJ Pingngan. Let’s put our special caring stomp on KL and its environs via Urban Station itself!

Teaching Single Parents to fish

2009-04-02T08:53:00.005+08:00

Some people deplore the idea of assisting those in need by giving out purely cash or groceries. For Jumble Station, we believe in meeting emergency needs via cash or in kind (giving donated items to single parents free of charge) first so that physical needs are met uppermost, after which, we will look at a more long term solution to their current predicament.

So yes, giving them fish to eat is important but teaching them to fish is a more sensible and more sustainable way to ease them of their financial woes. However teaching single parents in need to fish is a pretty daunting task not least because the desire to learn to “fish” has to come from them first.

One key thing is that one must first try to ‘lure’ them into the benefits learning to fish and it’s tough because first off many of the poor single parents are less skilled, poorly educated and lack self-confidence or are still psychologically too traumatised to try something new.

There are of course some exceptions and two of them come to mind. The first is single mother Rusnani who has 6 children to care for and whose spouse, a drug addict, abandoned her while she was expecting her last child. Nani possesses an enviable skill – she can cook and her signature dish – ayam berempah and nasi kukus (spicy fried chicken and steamed rice) is deliciously mouth-watering!

Nani came to Jumble Station’s attention when a friend who had promised to loan her the down-payment for a van that she needed to ferry her cooking utensils and ingredients, was nowhere to be found. All she needed was just RM3,000 to get a van that would help her to kick-start her food business at Damansara Heights, KL.

Recognising her desire to work and feed her children Jumble Station gave her the money needed to get a second hand van and she has since garnered quite a loyal following of customers who were willing to stand in line to await their ‘packed aromatic lunch”.

The snag is that she does not posses a licence and was constantly facing harassment from DBKL officers who would cart off her cooking gas tank, her cooking implements and chicken and impose a hefty RM300 fine each time she wanted her items back.

We stepped in to assist again by writing an appeal letter to DBKL seeking their help in getting her a licence but to no avail. Fortunately, she managed to secure a spot near the mosque premises where she is now able to conduct her daily business unhindered while her customers are delighted to know that their supply of ayam berempah remains uninterrupted. For Jumble Station it is enough to know that she is now capable of shouldering the burden of caring for her children independently and her desire now is to be able to hire some workers to help her in this business whilst expanding her reach to other places as well.

For single mother Panjalai, who earns only RM600 as a kindergarten helper and has only RM200 to survive on after deducting rental each month, learning to ‘fish’ is something she is just beginning to grasp. Jumble Station assisted her by securing her a small space in a shoplot at Angsana Flats for RM100 rental where she can now sell some items to the local residents there.
This little shop now sells detergents – powdered and liquid – formula from the well recognised name Kleenso.

Kleenso’s founder Mr Lee Teck Meng was kind enough to participate in this ‘teaching to fish’ exercise by supplying Panjalai’s shop with several of his branded products including bleach, softener, floor, glass and bathroom cleaners, car polish etc. There were also liquid detergent refills where one could bring one’s old plastic containers and buy the refill for a much cheaper price. Panjalai would earn some 30sen to 50sen per bottle sold while Jumble Station chipped in by passing to her some children’s toys, both big and small, to enable her to draw in the mothers and children to her shop.

It’s been only a month or so since this fishing experiment got started but so far, the indications are that both Nani and Panjalai are excited and pleased with their little ‘ventures’ and are gaining greater self confidence as the days go by. For Nani it is a move that is paying off well because she is now able to return RM200 a month to Jumble Station while Panjalai finds her retail venture very encouraging – she is able to pay off her RM100 rental for this month and have a little left over for her two teenage children.

Jumble Station hopes to get some flyers printed for them and that should help get more people to know about their products and to actually buy their products so that they can live more financially independent lives. So if you have a party planned and need great food – don’t miss Nani’s mouthwatering ayam berempah and if you need dishwashing liquid detergent to clean up after that, just swing by Panjalai’s shop to get some.

Admittedly both do not need ‘charity’ but they can go far with your strong, unstinting support. At Jumble Station we’re truly hoping that these two early successes will visibly inspire many more single parents to do likewise and thereby free themselves from the shackles of poverty. We really do want them to know that a hand-up is far better than a hand-out long term!

Jumble Station has a singular vision to assist single parents in need. If you have toys, clothes, electrical or electronic items, collectibles, furniture, books etc, do drop them at F1-01-05 Angsana Flats, USJ1 Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, Selangor or call 016-2202958 for collection of bulky items.

JS dancers wow Angsana crowd during free medical clinic

2009-03-02T16:56:00.006+08:00

Sunday, March 1 ....Some 750 residents of Angsana Flats at Subang Mewah, USJ1 were given free medical treatment and check up on Sunday March 1 2009. Organised jointly by the
Rotary Clubs of Bukit Kiara Sunrise (RCBKS) and The Rotary Club of Shah Alam (RCSA) in collaboration with Jumble Station, a NGO helping poor Single Parents and the Angsana Residents Association, the event saw some 15 doctors from both the private and government hospitals.
The Free Medical Camp was to create health awareness among the poorer community of the low cost flats of Angsana Flats, to provide free medical consultation and medicine to this community and to provide a health education for the residents there.
It began with a line dance exercise by Jumble Station volunteers and promptly at 9 am the crowd started streaming for the medical check up. Pfizher (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd;s Care –A –Van conducted tests to check the cholesterol and blood sugar tests for those aged 40 onwards as well as for blood pressure, Body Mass Index and obesity tests, among others. There were also free ultrasound tests for the kidney area, eye tests conducted and a mobile pharmacy manned by qualified pharmacists to dispense free medicine. Many youngsters were given de-wormed medicine while several adults were surprised to learn that they had high blood pressure and needed to be more careful of their own health.
Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib, the Minister of Rural and Regional Development was scheduled to officiate the closing but technical delays in his flight return to Malaysia prevented him from turning up. The guest of honour was Lion Group Medical Assistance Fund trustee Colleen stood in his place while Elsie Low, President of Rotary Club of Bukit Kiara Sunrise, Chandra Sekharan, President of Rotary Club of Shah Alam, and Azmy Awang, President Persatuan Penduduk Pangsapuri Angsana were the VIPs.
Jumble Station dancers, wowed the crowd with a lively rendition of a Malay dance titled “Dikir Puteri” led by our talented Adrian Ong, MekSue, Noni and her daughter Shamine. Our Dikir team was led by yours truly and other very sporting guys and gals – Rontau, Mae Ann, Eng Yao, Lian See, Sujata and her mum and Jessica.
The main sponsors for Angsana Flat’s medical camp included Lion Group Medical Assistance Fund, Pfizer, Pyrogen Technologies, Kossan Bhd, Hartalega Sdn. Bhd, Alkarich Sdn. Bhd., Michael Gan and Maestro Swiss Trading Sdn Bhd

Falling between the welfare cracks….

2009-02-14T02:50:00.003+08:00

At Jumble Station (JS), we often get this question from well wishers and donors – why can’t the single parent go out to work or get welfare help if their situation is so bad. Well, most times, the single parent is illiterate or poorly educated so menial jobs or factory work is all that she can aspire to.
Next is the issue of getting sufficient pay, enough at least to cover the cost of transport going to and from work, food and childcare fees – working as a housemaid or a factory hand certainly won’t cover this, not if you have 4-5 constantly hungry kids to feed and clothe.

It helps if your kids are a little older, then you don’t really have to worry about paying a childminder and your kids can care for themselves after school, leaving you free to get a job. Such was the case of single mother Panajalan who JS has been helping on a monthly basis.

Panjalan has a 19 year old son, Kumeran and a 17 year old daughter Sujata. Her husband died of a heart attack in January last year leaving her with no money or income. She currently works at a small kindergarten which is a walking distance from the flat she is renting just above JS’ shop at Angsana, USJ1 Subang Jaya.

Her take home pay is RM595 each month, rental for the flat is RM380, utilities is RM37 a month and the kids get RM4 a day for bus fare and lunch

Monthly income/expenses:

Take home pay: RM595
Rent: RM380
TNB + Water = RM37
Allowance for bus fare + lunch for 2 kids = RM160 a month
Balance left for food = RM18

Not surprisingly, the family has been subsisting on bread and milo and occasional handouts from relatives who are themselves not rich. Jumble Station learnt about their plight and took them to the Welfare Department for aid.

After close to 6 months of waiting, the Welfare Department finally agreed to provide aid but it turned out to be only RM100! So its RM50 per child - is that all? We took another trip to the Welfare office and we were told quite curtly that the RM100 was only for Sujata and not Kumeran!

Turns out Kumeran, having turned 18 last year was not eligible for welfare aid according to the Malaysian law. The law disregards the fact that Kumeran is still studying (fees paid for by a relative) and unemployable for perhaps another 2-5 years!

When asked if there was any aid for a single mother, the Welfare staff swiftly said “No”. She then asked for Panjalan’s age and on learning that she was only 50plus said, oh kalau you 60 sahaja boleh dapat sumbangan (oh if you’re 60 you are entitled to aid for the elderly). When I told her that even with welfare aid the family only has RM118 to survive on, the Welfare staff offhandedly suggested that Panjalan find a 2nd job. A very dejected Panjalah said that she is unable to cope with a 2nd job because she currently has high blood pressure which makes it tough to work long hours!

So there you have it – a family genuinely in need of help but the Welfare Department has its hands tied by laws that make very little sense. Even the RM100 aid it gives now will be stopped next year once Sujata hits 18 years old! At that time, Panjalan will be older, frailer and more sickly while her kids will need more money to pursue their studies because education is the only way in which the family can someday get out of the vicious poverty cycle that now enslaves them.

In the meantime, Jumble Station is pitching in to assist with groceries each month, Kumeran earns as little by repairing the CPUs that come to JS and Sujata earns RM10 each time she volunteers in our little shop. The next three to four years will be tougher as Kumeran pursues his interest in Computing studies and Sujata guns for accountancy but where will they get the money to pay for their studies?

The one year since their sole breadwinner died has not been easy for them at all but one must salute their determination to earn where possible and make do with whatever they have. It is families like these that deserve a helping hand and it’s time the law is amended to meet needs rather than age criteria don’t you think?

Back to School Rush!

2009-01-16T09:19:00.004+08:00

What’s usually the biggest headache parents face towards the start of a new school term? Finding the cash to buy new school uniforms, school shoes, bags, books and stationery. If you have more than two kids, the problem becomes a migraine indeed and if you’re a Single Parent, it’s enough to send you to the loony bin.

Realising this, Jumble Station got together with a couple of charitable souls from various churches, led by Damansara Utara Methodist Church’s Excel Community Services and several CGs, to assist Single Parents and their children cross this tough hurdle. The “Back to School” party was also organised to coincide with the festive Christmas season to bring greater cheer into their weary and tired lives.

Some 50 Single Parents and 130 children from Desa Mentari which is a stone throw from Sunway were able to participate in this event where they were royally treated to a sumptuous dinner replete with one humongous stuffed roasted turkey donated generously by Victoria Station and topped off with packets of Cheezels and Tiger biscuits from Kraft that had the little ones smiling from ear to ear. For many of them, these were rare treats indeed!

While the children were delighted to get a set of spanking new uniforms, school bag and stationery set, many of the single parents too were not forgotten and each went home with a goodie bag filled to the brim with grocery items that ranged from ‘beras’ to cookies, oil to flour among others.

Lucien a freelance photographer took some candid and picturesque shots of the fun filled event and the pictures themselves tell a very telling tale of how a thoughtful few, with lots of enthusiasm can bring tremendous joy to many of the less privileged, more importantly to the Single Parents who are generally overlooked during the ‘Back to School” rush. At least this time, they weren’t!

Interested in helping single parents in need – call us at 016-2202958

A-hunting JS went

2009-01-06T01:31:00.004+08:00

Here's a fun way to raise some funds for charity - have a treasure hunt! Well Jumble station was given an opportunity to participate in a hunt with a difference - firstly it was organised by a church - DUMC - and it was the first time ever the church's community centric arm was doing this and secondly it was part of a programme designed to bring the Christmas joy to some single parents.

Some 20 single parents and their kids, making a total of 40 in all, turned up a day earlier for a day long carnival where games, carolling and just pure fun was the order of the day. First off they had to guess the weight of a large Christmas hamper, it showed if you go shopping often and someone said it weighed like a newborn baby. Never having had a kiddo, I could associate it more to the weight of a bag of rice - so I put the figure at 5.8kg, aw shucks, it turned out to be a bigger bag - 9.5kg! There was also the guess the number of stars os all those with a head for figures and an eye for the shiny stars went a-countin but come to think of it, I don't remember hearing what the final score was and who actually won it! There were other activities like the tangram, drawing competition etc

The next day was the treasure hunt and since it was organised by a church with the help of a professional hunt firm - Time-out Solutions - it's logical to think it might have some Bible related questions. Wrong - not a thing unless you wanna count the question where it said 'what was Jesus first words to Joseph? Ans - Oh Pappa!.. The rest of the time the questions were quite tough and one had to be really Sherlockian to get the right answer - it didn't help when we got lost somewhere in Bangsar and missed out on some Qs and didnt quite get our treasures that tepat---still overall it was an enjoyable afternoon and JS staff got the much needed break needed for the holiday season, enough to make this Christmas really memorable to say the least..lets hope we do better at the next JS paricpating hunt!

Golfing for charity

2008-12-25T02:32:00.002+08:00

Some people play golf to get business, some do it to get away from business. Then there’s the few that make it their business to play golf and help the disadvantaged at the same time. One of our regular volunteers Joyce is a great communicator of JS needs and she connected us to one of her many business networks just so more people could learn about the plight of single parents and do something really meaningful in the process.

Thanks to her gentle nudging, the Selangor & Federal Territory Machinery Merchants Association (SAFMA) took time off from their hectic corporate schedules to play a bit of golf but they did this with a singular purpose – to help raise funds for charity and this time around Jumble Station was among the many organizations that benefited from their heartfelt compassion.

Co-founder Lim Lian See, Joyce and I were invited to attend SAFMA’s 20th anniversary held at the HGH Convention Centre at Jalan Sentul. There we were treated to a sumptuous Chinese ‘makan’ fit for a king and where we were entertained by highly energetic Chinese, Thai and multi-ethnic dancing! The event culminated in a cheque presentation and Jumble Station was given a RM6,000 cheque for Single Parents which came in real handy when we decided to co-host a ‘Back-to-school’ party for the kids of single parents. More on that soon…

A family Outing..with a singular difference!

2008-12-25T00:30:00.004+08:00

Family outings are usually tough things to plan. Try that with a dozen families or so and it can be a logistical nightmare. Still that didn’t stop four friends from doing it and doing it each time for single parents for the last three years.

Michael Moey, Dolly Chan, Mary Verguese and Tan Gaik Khim were buddies from USM ( Class of 1976) and this fab four were given a lump sum of money for charity way back in 2006 by A-da Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd plus various individual well-wishers. The four wanted to give single parents some quality time with their children. “During this time, they get to fellowship with other single mothers and participate in the many fun activities eg visits to tea estate, strawberry farm, vegetable farm etc,” Khim says.

This year, they did the same with some 12 families, all single parents recommended by Jumble Station, a community outreach initiative to assist Single Parents in need. We chose single parents who really needed a break or could do with a little pampering for a change. There was Mary Dass, the Mother Theresa of Desa Mentari near Sunway. She has a 20 year old daughter and every one in need at Desa Mentari goes to her for help.

There was Amethy with her two children, there was Krishnan a single father of 5 kids, there was Alice and her two kids, Meng Hong from Kajang with her two daughters, Lonvy from Sungai Buloh with her eight year old son Shaun, there was Anna and Alice, a grandmother of 5 kids that she's caring for and a couple of others as well. Yours truly went along as well to see first hand what it was like and to photograph the families on holiday at cool, CheFoo Centre at Cameron Highlands!

Both parents and kids enjoyed themselves visiting Strawberry and vegetable farms, vegetable market, pasar malam, pasar pagi and touring the Boh Tea plantation. Meals were a hefty affair, nasi lemak in the mornings to biscuits and cookies for tea and dinner saw loads of Cameron vegetables, seafood and meat aplenty, whatever hunger were easily appeased. Lunch too at Tanah Rata was a special treat thanks to the generousity of the Kiwanis of Puchong and Cheras which had graciously agreed to sponsor the meal for our hungry troupe and we all tucked into the seafood cum meat platter voraciously.

What made the trip memorable to many was the thoughtful gesture on the part of the fab four to have the photographs of each single parent and their kids taken after which it was promptly developed and printed. Each family then were given manila cards and ribbons and told to decorate their own photo albums the best way they could. The most creative were awarded prizes but for many of the families, the photographs will be a lasting momento of their precious time together and the precious gift of good times together by an unknown donor who knew how to give the gift of giving in a more meaningful way.

The only sad part of this story? There will not be a 4th outing because the lump sum given by the mysterious donor is finished. The single parents don’t know this, Jumble Station hopes that somewhere out there, someone will step forward to continue this uniquely beautiful gesture of giving and get the fab four to continue organizing more of such trips for the down and out of society. If you have the cash but don’t have the time, then give us a call 016-2202958 (Anne) and we’ll connect you to one of the fab four so that the lives of more single families can be touched for years to come .

Setting Up a soup kitchen in Lembah Subang

2008-12-09T14:54:00.005+08:00

What do you do when kids go hungry and they have no one to turn to? Jumble Station came across some children of single parents who for some reason or another cannot feed their children two to three square meals a day.

One single mother locks her children in the house while she goes out to work and the kids will beg for food from which ever neighbour happens to be passing outside their grilled flat. Another single mother, Sumathi Renganathan is undergoing deep depression after being abandoned by her ‘man’. She was living in an abandoned flat meant for demolition where there was no electricity and no nearby neighbours at all. She can’t function normally and chooses to feed her two daughters with cold and days old food because “she doesn’t want her cooking gas to run out!”

These and many others do exist in the very heart of Selangor at Lembah Subang just a mile or so from the old airport at Subang and minutes from the PAWS animal shelter office. For Sumathi, Jumble Station had took her to University Hospital for medical and psychiatric evaluation and then housed her two daughters, Kavi Shalini 4 years and Santhia 2years in a flat that we rented for RM130 a month. It’s a government flat and talk has it that the rental will be raised but that’s another matter.

The flat will be our own Lembah Subang Soup Kitchen and Vennie, a single mother who has since retired will be responsible for the cooking and feeding of hungry children and families thereby ensuring that poor families have at least one good meal a day!

Aside from paying for the rental of the flat, Jumble Station was also able to assist with the set up of the kitchen by sending over an oven cooker, a gas stove, cutlery, plates and other kitchen utensils, a ceiling fan among others which had bee given by other donors.
We are also committed to bringing in groceries and ingredients that will be needed by the cooks to ensure the cooking pots are steaming healthy meals each day for those in need.

It’s a small start but Jumble Station hopes that this soup kitchen will be a place where single parents can also meet up to network and encourage each other while learning new skills from time to time. Sumathi has since been discharged from hospital and is now happily staying at the Stepping Stones Home in Subang where she will have her medical situation monitored and her two little girls cared for daily.

Meanwhile, with the soup kitchen we believe this is yet one more practical way to ease the plight of single parents within the Lembah Subang area and one where other more well off people can step up to assist as well by donating goods or food directly to the families concerned. Those interested can igve a buzz/sms Anne at 016-2202958.

Meet Jumble Station 2!

2008-09-29T17:35:00.006+08:00

Exactly one year after Jumble Station1 was born, Jumble Station 2 is now a reality. It is located at RS-G-1 Plaza Sri Muda just a stone's throw from the old wet market. Some 8 months ago, we were considering this location but we opted not to take a spot because then we felt it was a little too soon for Jumble Station to branch out after the failed experiment at Desa Mentari (JS Junior) where we could not find a single mother that was willing to assist us in managing the place efficiently.

Back then too we felt that the Sri Muda location was a little too quiet for our liking and it would be hard to attract people to the shop. Our gut instinct proved right, we saw a few of the early entrants pulling outjust as we were about to move in because they could not stomach the long wait for the place to come alive.

Now however, the environment has totally changed, now the likes of Mydin and other Pasarraya mini-marts have taken residence on the outer fringes of the marketplace and more folks are thronging there. Inside the spanking new market there were still many shops waiting to be rented out.

The wet market was touted to have been demolished and replaced by this new market but three years down the road, the recalcitrant sellers have refused to budge from the old and take up their rightful place in the new market. Hence many shoplots were going for a very reasonable rental indeed. This time we managed to rent a corner lot which used to be a barber shop which came complete with glass walls enabling curious passersby to see right through the shop itself.

On September 19, 2008, we opened the shop for business and Adrian, a single father worked hard at drawing in the buyers but cajoling and persuasion, with a little help from some flyers as well. The purpose of this shop is to enable JS to reach out to yet another poor community - the Shah Alam neighbourhood where exists a large low income and poor community comrpising bumis, Indians and migrant groups.

We hope that this new outlet will prove to be a blessing to these folks as much as JS1 has been to the folks at Angsana USJ1. With more people willing to give their unwanted household items to JS to help Single Parents, JS1 will be filled to overflowing unless we find another outlet and with the obvious slowdown in the economy, resulting in reduced sales, it makes better sense to find another outlet so that the funds for Single Parents will remain sustainable even as the number of Single Parents discovering JS role is increasing.

So far the indication for JS2 looks promising, customers, locals and migrants are finding our products way cheaper than Bundle or our outside rivals but we're still keenly working hard to make this new outlet as much as success as JS1. Our next move is to identify a single mum who is trustworthy and committed enough to look after the shop on a daily basis and on a small allowance to boot!

The old timers there all warned us that it would be tough to succeed there. In fact our new neighbour a Malay herbal shop is already finding it extremely hard to get business and plans to call it quits in a month or two, a Chinese sinseh two doors away switched to a shop fronting MyMydin and told us we wouldn't make it either - but we're still game to try it and we shall see how it pans out in the end!

70 needy folks get Raya Hampers from PPB Group

2008-09-29T17:27:00.003+08:00

Malaysia's sugar king Robert Kuok's local corporate arm PPB Group wanted to bless some of the needy folks around Subang and Sunway areas and approached Jumble Station for help in identifying the right people to give Hari Raya Hampers.

Despite the rather short notice, we were able to get some 70 names - 50 from the Angsana area where JS is located and another 20 from Desa Mentari at Sunway to bring joy to . Our JS lorry swung by PPB office at Wisma Jerneh at Jalan Sultan Ismailwhere 70 invidual bags of oggdies were already ready and waiting for delivery. Expecting the usual gaily wrapped hamper, I was surprised to find several, heavily loaded bags good enough for a muscle-man to carry. Inside each bag were an assorted range of goodies from sardines to flourto sugar, to biscuits to cooking oil, Clorox and even fresh bread and apples. All in all it was one heavy load indeed. Just pushing, dragging and shoving the bags albeit carefully onto the lorry was a hefty task that had workers and volunterrs panting and heaving towards the end. desa Mentari was the first stop and it being a week day, a Tuesday most of the 20 Single Mums were away at work leaving only a handful to collect on behalf on the rest.
After that it was off to Angsana where some 30 or so needy ones which included Single Parents, the disabled, the low income, chronically ill and the down trodden were given their respective bag of goodies. For garbage collector Sadi Nawi for instance,it meant being able to eat for a couple of days because prior to that, he depended on his daily wage of RM1.50 - RM3 from the management in lieu of disposing the mountains of garbage that acrrued at Angsana Flats. While some residents there questioned the wisdom of someone who is an acoholic the key and valid point they're missing is that he more than any other person there is really in need of help and if during this Raya month we cannot keep one more indivudual happy and contented if only for a wee while, why then should we begrudge such a person a little joy like this - after all giving a raya hamper is not like one is giving him cash so he can drink right!

When high price meets low price

2008-08-25T13:11:00.005+08:00

UDM Owners who are the proud owners of high priced vehicles BMW dropped by Jumble Station last Saturday to share some of their ‘cool comfort’ stuff with Jumble Station and took along about 5 Single Parents and their kids for the ride of their lives.

A total of 10 BMW cars replete with Malaysian flags made up the convoy for the UDM Owners Merdeka Charity Drive and were flagged off by Subang Jaya ADUN Hannah Yeoh. The VVIP passengers comprised Rosnah and her four children, Babu and his 7 boys, Julie Tan and her three kids, Lisa and her 5 month old daughter as well as Olga a Filipino single mum as well as three of single mum Nani’s children.

The convoy took off at 9.30am and wound its way from Jumble Station to the Sunway Lagoon Resort where the BMWs were given a special right to park at the Orange Atrium entrance. From then on, the focus was on making the day special for the Single Parents and their kids.

They were treated to a movie “Meet Dave” where laughter greeted Eddie Murphy’s latest antics and fast talk after which lunch was at Michaelangelo’s Italian Kitchen and a little bit of shopping around the Sunway Pyramid 2 shopping mall before heading back to Jumble Station at 4pm. The day was topped off with each child being given a goodie bag full of tidbits and stationary items, among others.

The overall response from the kids and parents say it all.

Babu: “Ini Italian makan banyak sedap. Baik kita dapat makan sini. Tak pernah makan macam ini. Kalau saya kena bayar, lebih RM100 mana sanggup?

Rosnah: “My children have not gone to see a show for ages. We cannot afford it cos it is cheaper to buy a VCD or DVD but they love the car ride, the movie and the food!”

Lisa “My little slept all the way in the BMW, she knows what comfort is and she was so good too during the movie!

Nani: My children really enjoyed themselves, thank you so much for arranging this event.”

Julie Tan: “My kids are really happy today and even though they had to wait around, they told me the wait was really worth it! Thanks JS and UDMOnwers for this special day!

Jumble Station is 1 this month!

2008-08-20T11:48:00.003+08:00

Imagine that! Jumble Station is 1 come August 28 this year and we've got a great Birthday present to celebrate this historic milestone - a van! That's right, for a whole year we've been desperately trying to get a van. Numerous letters were written, appeals made during presentations, hints proffered and direct requests made to politicians to no avail.

Of course some have promised to give the cash, some offered to help us get it via their connections some even said they'd find a van and buy it for us - nadda. Then last Sunday when I was on my way to church I decided to turn to the one person I had forgotten to ask - God - telling him I was fed up of trying to get one and that it was his turn to take on the task.

Miracle of miracles, after the church service I was given a letter and in it was a cheque from an anonymous donor for RM40,000 towards the purchase of a van and a pat on the back from DUMC Senior Pastor to keep the JS flag flying. So who says miracles don't happen and fast too!

So now with the RM9,999 given by The Legend Hotel last Christmas, we now have RM50,000 to buy a van to help ferry Single Parents around for events and to collect donated items from well wishers... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUMBLE STATION - what a great and fascinating year it has been for all of us and now as we embark on year two let's wish for greater things to brighten the lives of Single Parents... cheers Antz

In the grand-daddy of flea-markets – Amcorp Mall

2008-08-04T11:03:00.003+08:00

Amcorp Mall is reknowned in Malaysia as being the oldest, the grand-daddy so to speak of flea market locations. It is the place if you’re looking to buy second hand goods and antiques. Go there any weekend and you’ll see hordes of flea market traders and second hand buyers roaming the various floors looking for great buys.

Last Friday, Jumble Station was given the opportunity to participate in a Charity Sale organized Amcorp Mall to coincide with Deaf Art Exhibition opened by the Deputy Minister of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage, Teng Boon Soon. Our first foray there proved to be an interesting experience. For one we got to know and became friends with quite a few other fellow charity centric organizations like Bless Shop belonging to SIB, WAO for abused women, a Buddhist disabled group, Malaysian Hope and one other welfare home for orphans. Oh yeah, there was also a Left Handers table there which was a great find for an avowed lefty!

Although the design of the floor layout could have been improved to enable a better flow of the human traffic in and out of the ground floor itself, the response of the buyers and shoppers at Amcorp was gratifying. They clearly appreciated the many and varied collectible items that we had on display and bought many an item with very little bargaining, because the pricing was extremely reasonable. In terms of sharing about JS and its aspirations too, the response was extremely warm and many were delighted to know that there is now a place like Jumble Station that is willing to take all their unwanted stuff. During the dull moments, some of us enlivened the time with golden oldies, warbling away to the amusement of the others. Point is, we showed others how passionate and lively JS folks can be when serving the needy!

Overall, the experience was an exhilarating and a pleasing one, so we at JS certainly look forward to our 1st weekend of every month participation in the Amcorp Mall charity floor (top floor) do since this will enable us to reach out to more people and more people including single parents in need who can now reach us directly is they so require. What we sorely need now are more volunteers for these mall promotion events to lessen the burden on our already hard stretched workers Adrian, Sue and steadfast volunteer Joyce Leong… any other more willing souls out there????

Jumble Station's Lian See featured in Asian Beacon

2008-07-21T11:26:00.003+08:00

Jumble Station's co-founder Lim Lian See is featured in this month's issue of Asian Beacon. For those who don't know, Asian Beacon is an interdenominational Christian magazine that has been around ages...well since 1968! Lian See is the cool, calm, genteel power behind the growth of Jumble Station and a true Godly servant with a really big heart for the poor and the marginalised. Her persuasive powers can cut through many a feeble excuse so its usually easier to just respond to her plea for help and many a downtrodden life has been blessed because she cared enough to respond and to get others to respond to a need. Get a copy of Asian Beacon "The Beyond Sickness" issue and read more about her in the article titled "A Single Minded Hairdresser."

Our first foray into the busy shopping malls

2008-07-18T01:18:00.004+08:00

1Utama became Jumble Station's first foray into the busy shopping malls recently and boy that was an experience. The iUtama management was kind enough to allow us the use of its Community Corner designed to help raise greater awareness of the actitivities of the charitable organisations and JS was the chosen one this time around.

Our penetration of the malls coincided with the Mega Sale Carnival and we were hoping to raise greater awareness and knowledge of JS to the buying crowd. The promotional exercise began on Friday which meant JS could not get enough volunteers esp in the early morning period but loyal volunteers like Jenny from Sunway, Joyce Leong from Puchong, Samuel and his high spirited CG members dropped by to give us a hand with the handing out of the flyers.

Funnily enough, not many people were even aware of our presence, some came and treated us as an info counter (where's Nando... Parkson??? Korean restaurant were the most common!!!) and still failed to ask us about what we were doing, we still ensured they did not leave without our newly printed postcards.

A couple were pretty rude, reifused to take our postcards and never even slowed their pace of walking, after hastily running after a few, we the more easily tired out ones decided to let the youngsters do the walkin and the talkin... still I choose to believe that many more people are aware of JS existence and that while sales there over the 3day period was laughable, still it was a fun experience.. hopefully early August at the Amcorp Mall will prove to be a more exciting one.

Deloitte does its part to help JS

2008-07-12T02:55:00.004+08:00

Deloitte at UPtown in Petaling Jaya took time out from its busy corporate activities to lend a much needed hand to Jumble Station. It recently did its bit for charity by organising a collection day specially among its staff.
A few days prior to the event emails and flyers were sent and pinned up all over the office premises to ensure staff were made well aware of the event.
A meeting room was set aside just to collect the items which were then placed neatly into individual boxes with the labels smartly identifying which box was for which.
Babu and I braved the horrendous traffic jam to reach the office location at Uptown and we were given several boxes of clothes, shoes and toys. Other items such as grocery items and pet food were donated to orphanages and PAWS. It was a pretty satisfying collection and Deloitte felt encouraged enough to want to plan another in a couple of months time. We're hoping that corporate firms out there will want to emulate the likes of Deloitte in giving a hand to the needy.

Single Parents having a great time

2008-06-05T09:34:00.005+08:00

Despite the stormy weather which made it tough for some Single Mums to attend, Jumble Station's first Mother’s Day party for Single Parents got off to a rousing start with several of the mothers friskily ‘kicking off their heels’ to participate in an impromptu ‘Hokey Pokey’ dance designed to get them loosened up for the special event.

It was swiftly followed by a number of games aimed at testing their dexterity with chopsticks in the case of picking up beans, their toothy snap and crunch ability with the sunflower seeds, muscle power with newspaper toss in the case of the Single Fathers and wind power where it came to blowing up a balloon till it burst.

The Single Parents were given a short speech by Jumble Station single parents co-ordinator Lim Lian See who also announced the fact that JS has officially assumed full responsibility for the care of all those within the Shelter Home’s Single Mothers Network and combined with the newer ones on JS’ database, these will now come under the proposed umbrella of “Parents without Partners’. More on this later.

This was followed by a brief power point presentation on what Jumble Station was all about by JS co-founder Mary Anne. This was very quickly followed by a lively presentation of the Malay version of line dancing also known as ‘pocho pocho’ by three dancers from the Angsana Residents Committee dance troupe led by single father Aiman.

The highlight of the event was the lucky draw where every one of the Single Parents won a lucky draw prize regardless of whether the item was a small silver bracelet or a large electronic biggie item such as a DVD, an oven etc. Topping off the evening’s revelry was the fantastic food spread that was laid out for them with enough for some of the ‘poorer’ Single parents to ‘take away’ for their dinner or perhaps lunch for their kids the next day.

And to make the day even more memorable, every single Parent was given a goodie bag from courier company GDex with believe it or not, one electric item – an electric steam iron or a toaster or a hairdryer along with a photoframe and other great stuff – to take away. Even the little children were not forgotten, they too received a goodie bag from DGex which saw them all leaving with huge smiles on their faces.

To all the sponsors and volunteers out there who made this event so special, memorable and enjoyable, our sincere thanks and heartfelt appreciation for without your input, this would not have been as fabulous. So once again, a very big THANK YOU!

Jumble Station’s 1st Mother’s Day celebration

2008-05-21T22:53:00.005+08:00

From May 1, Jumble Station was asked by Shelter Home to take over its 3-year old Single Mothers Network group since we’re already doing a good job of it! This is a challenge we were more than willing to take on because it is precisely an integral part of our vision and mission.

This special takeover event will be celebrated on a discreet scale on June 1 2008. JS will be holding a Mothers Day event to get all the Single Parents that are currently under Jumble Station’s care to meet up with some of those who were from the Shelter Home Single Mothers Network.

The event will be held at Hall 3 of Dream Centre which is just next door to Jaya 33 at Section 13/1 Petaling Jaya from 2.30pm - 4.30pm. While we have around 150 Single Parents on our database, only 60 of the poorest among them will be feted on that day, together with their children.

Among the activities to look forward to is the dance performance by the Angsana Residents led by single father Aiman who together with his motley crew will perform the “pocho pocho’ dance and some cha cha to boot. Also in the offing will be some lucky draws, a presentation about Jumble Station and its mission as well as a song or two.

Themed “Mum, you’re my everything” this event aims to recognize the special role and continuing importance of Single Parents as they struggle to keep their family together despite their difficulties. We’re currently looking for donors willing sponsor a ‘draw prize or two’ so that as many of these single mums can go home with a surprise gift.

If you’re interested in assisting Jumble Station in this matter of gifts, do drop us a line at jumblestation@gmail.com or SMS 016-2202958 …your thoughtful gesture can bring joy to a mother who may not have won a prize in her life – so go on, surprise someone this time around.

Reading maketh ..some kids?

2008-05-08T01:03:00.003+08:00

Jumble Station gets lots of books, adults and kiddies type and we’ve discovered that except for the comics and really light reading, the folks at Angsana aren’t a reading lot, not even the little ones.

Many parents have expressed a wish to have their kids learning English but getting tuition teachers, good ones at that is a problem these days, considering the fractured English spoken by the X-generation.

Anyway JS was approached by the Persatuan Penduduk Pangsapuri Angsana to help generate interesting activities that can be conducted at the newly built multipurpose hall. We immediately offered to start an English reading class to help get the youngsters at Angsana familiar with the English language. This is one good way to launch our plan for a Learning Station which will also include a sewing class very soon, hopefully.

Last Saturday was the first class and co-founders Sanice abd Mary Anne together with volunteer Joyce Leong, Jonathan, Aiman and a cameo appearance by Judy Chai kicked off this programme with some 24 little ones.

Sanice taught the 10-12 age group, I took the 5-9 crowd while Joyce gamely took on the tiny tots who knew nothing of ABC. While Sanice put the bigger ones through their spelling phase, I settled for ABC rhymes, a game, a story and finished the session with a rousing Hokey Pokey song simply because many of the kids don’t know what’s left or right as yet!

Customers later came back with some feedback that their kids had thoroughly enjoyed the session, including a few who had been extremely reluctant at first to go for the class and had to be dragged there by their parents. So folks, do keep up the great volunteer effort and lets make it a firm commitment to be at the dewan every Saturday from 2.30pm till 4pm or at least make sure someone is there to substitute if you can’t because what we do today, will have a huge impact on the future of at least one child if not all of them. I know this ‘cos it happened to me!

The dilemma of being a single father….

2008-05-05T10:17:00.003+08:00

Society tends to sympathise with Single Mothers far more than a Single Father. Perhaps it is the fact that Single Mothers tend to appear frail, fragile and are rather overwhelmed by the tragedy that puts them in the sad situation that they are in. If the Single Mother is a homemaker, the problem is made worse for now she has to worry about getting an income while keeping the family intact.

Single Fathers on the other hand are expected to be strong, remain the sole and consistent breadwinner and the bulwark of the family unit. To the public, a Single Father should be a lot better off than a Single Mother so one should not waste too much time on them. The reality may be entirely different!

This societal prejudice against a Single Father exists and it can be painful especially if you are illiterate, poor and lack skills. Sandra Babu (pronounced Chandra) is one such case. The father of 9 children, seven of them boys and two girls, their ages ranging from 14 years old to four years, faced this bitter dilemma ever since wife who suffered from asthma died in her sleep last September.

Babu suddenly became a single father to his brood. While his two daughters were sent to live at Shelter Home, the seven boys remain at home under his care. The snag is, the last couple of months have been really tough on him. With no money, uneducated and no real skills, it has been a really a rough transition time for Babu.

Why can’t he just go and get a job, you ask? He could but ask yourself this - what kind of a job will give him enough salary to pay for someone to care for all his 7 boys? Even at RM200 per head (which is the lowest price), he will need to fork out RM1,400 just for a day care minder and what about the issue of food, rental, clothes etc?

For the last 10 years or so, Babu has been working as a lorry driver, renting his sister-in-law’s lorry for RM35 a month and was able to take care of his family needs from whatever he earns as a lorry driver cum buyer and seller of recycle items. However ever since his wife’s untimely death and with the high prices of commodities, he has had been able to rent his sister-in-law’s lorry because they wanted to use it for themselves.

Undaunted, Babu has struggled on by renting other people’s lorry for RM50 each time whenever his regular recycle clients call him to take away their unwanted, recycle items. However the lorry owners naturally will rent to him the lorry for only two to three hours or not at all. This erratic means of income has made it extremely tough on him to earn a steady income while still trying to keep his family intact.

Without a fixed monthly income and no savings at all, no bank was willing to loan him the money to buy his own lorry and with no one willing to stand guarantor for him, his future seemed bleak. Worried sick and discouraged, Babu contemplated suicide but only the thought of leaving his children orphans made him stop.

And then Jumble Station, a community outreach initiative learnt about his situation and stepped into his life. First off, Jumble Station helped to pay off his outstanding rental payments, gave him a monthly sum for groceries, got a Single mother to keep an eye on his kids and finally, loaned him the money to get a lorry of his own.

The lorry is registered under Jumble Station but Babu now has the means and motivation to make something of himself for his children. With a lorry of his own so to speak, Babu now has a brighter hope to excel in what he already knows and is capable of doing.

All he needs now is for the public’s support to use his 1 ton lorry to transport goods within the Klang Valley area (he needs to be home at nights for his children) and to collect recycle items be it paper (Photostat paper, magazines, newspaper etc), metals (rusty or old vehicles wanted as well) and plastic.

Babu will also assist Jumble Station with the collection of big items such as washing machine, fridge, TV, furniture etc that people may want to donate to Jumble Station. However, a minimum fee will need to be paid to help cover the cost of gasoline and to help pay off the loan for the lorry.

So if you or anyone you know has need of a lorry someday do call/SMS Jumble Station (mary anne 016-2202958) and do your part to ensure that this Single Father is able to take care of his family without any more ‘charity’ for that ultimately is what Jumble Station aims to do ‘help one needy single parent’s family at a time”.

Prema… shy about asking for help.

2008-04-30T00:14:00.002+08:00

In the course of helping out Single Parents, we at Jumble Station have discovered there are two kinds of people – the kind that are so apologetic and embarrassed about their dire situation and need for financial assistance while the other kind is so used to getting handouts, they demand for it, take from all and sundry and demand to know why aid is stopped!

The first kind is where Prema our newest Single Mother belongs to. She is a mother of three children, abandoned some months back by her Chinese husband a drug addict and left to fend for herself and her kids.

Prema works as a tea lady cum cleaner at a manufacturing outfit in USJ 4 and earns only RM650 a month but after EPF deductions, her take home pay is only RM600. She earns an extra RM100 cleaning a house but even this is not enough. Prema was referred to JS by Shelter Home and she tells us that she has problems paying off the monthly rental for her low cost flat especially after the MPSJ raised her rental by RM100 just prior to the March 8 elections.

Her rental arrears amounts to RM1,600 and she’s forced to borrow RM800 from a friend to settle part of the arrears. JS donated RM100 and some groceries to her the first time we met her and then gave her a further RM800 to help her with her rental arrears. We’re now trying to see how best we can help her overcome her financial woes so that life will be much easier for this stoic Single Mother. Prema was quite overcome when we insisted she take the RM800 because she couldn’t quite believe that there are folks out there that care enough to want to help. It is folks like this that makes reaching out to real needs such a joy indeed….

Closing down JS junior ….and opening a new chapter at Angsana

2008-04-29T23:43:00.002+08:00

You’ve heard the saying that one should teach another to fish so he can eat a lifetime rather than merely feed him a fish each day. Sometimes though, it is hard to teach someone to fish when the person does not want to fish!

We faced this situation at Desa Mentari when we set up JS Junior and a tuition centre there as part of our effort to reach out to the needs of the 20 Single Parents there. We did that upon the request of the folks there but the sad thing is that none of the Single Parents there with the exception of one, was willing to lend a helping hand to keep it going and ensure its success.

The sole person, Mary Dass initially started off very enthusiastically but soon lost steam when the response from the flat dwellers and the single parents there were pitifully poor. It seems that they were so used to receiving things for free, they couldn’t contemplate paying for anything or volunteering at JS unless they were paid a salary.

To make matters worse, the one month when JS Jr was placed in the care of a single mother who in turn outsourced it to her teenage daughter, whatever monies came in went into ‘feeding’ the teen’s insatiable handphone calls. Even the tuition fees, what little there was, suffered the same fate and the petty cash too were ‘borrowed’ by the teen who spun some very blatant lies to cover the loss of the cash.

In the end, we decided that it was more expedient to cut our losses and close down JS Jr and wonder of wonders, another church group was even then looking to rent a flat and we agreed to let them take over the tenancy of the place and collect our rental deposit.

Meanwhile at Angsana Flats itself, Jumble Station was invited by the Resident Committee to assist with activities for the spanking new multipurpose hall. We agreed to help start an English reading class beginning this coming Sat, May 3rd because this will help us to utilise some of the children’s books that were donated by kind donors. So watch out for more info on this…meanwhile here's the pix of the chairman, secretary and football captain of the Angasana Flats resident committee receiving their football club jersey during the meeting where JS co-founders were invited to attend. What we need now are committed volunteers to assist with the story telling, nursery rhymes and activities for the kiddies at Angsana...

Switch on your TV, tune in to RTM 1

2008-04-23T22:54:00.006+08:00

Come Thursday night April 24 at 9pm… catch the 3 minute segment on Jumble Station over on RTM 1 ‘s “Fitra Kasih” show where you will JS stars like Lim Lian See, Sanice Kam, Lillian, Jonathan and Rong Tau, Mala and Rainah all strutting their stuff…here’s your chance to catch them in action….and if you can’t …here are more pix of the RTM shoot…

From Audio to Visual …Jumble Station hits the airwaves….

2008-04-13T23:00:00.010+08:00

Being heard …on Bernama Radio 24
JS makes it to the radio… okay not many of you knew that JS made it to the radio waves last Sunday morning except for a few who tuned into 93.9FM belonging to Bernama radio channel 24.

Interestingly a quick check of the Internet prior to the actual interview showed that it’s a radio channel that was launched on Sept 3 2007 which makes it as young as Jumble Station itself. I also loved the fact that the station was born on the same day as myself, minus a couple of years… okay a few decades to be exact!

So anyway, for the last two Sundays, Feb 6th and Feb 13th, Jumble Station have had the unique chance to share its vision and mission on the air and via TV. Thanks to the write up by The Star Metro and the SJ Echo, the other local newshounds have pounced on JS as a good news bite and invited us to share something about what we’re doing with the Malaysian public.

Lian See and I woke up early for the Bernama Radio 24 live talk show on 93.9FM and brought along single mum Rainah Kinsang and Babu Chandran. We treked our way to the Bernama HQ at Jalan Gurney in KL and found not a single warong where e could have a quick bite but McDonalds came to there rescue...

So there we were interviewed live and in er.. fractured BM described to the listeners the plight of the poor single and how JS is trying its best to make life a little easier for them. It was a pretty indepth interview with some pretty incisive questions given during the 2 hour talk show while Rainah and Babu had a hard time overcoming their shyness and gave their replies in strangled voices…

Today, we come out from behind the microphone to stand in front of the camera for RTM’s charity show - Fitra Kasih - and the support from our JS supporters for JS’ television debut was great – almost everyone who cared, turned up to help us out from Lillian of Street Ministry who timed her arrival to deliver stuff and was caught on camera by the RTM crew to Azahar, Rong Tau and Jonathan who had rushed to borrow a van to deliver some teddy bears and electrical stuff… all these were captured by RTM’s eagle eyed cameraman…Then there was also the supporting ‘cast’ from volunteer Joyce Leong to CG leader Chee Leong and a couple of our regular JS customers.

After which the three of us, co-founders of JS… Lian See, Pingnan and little Antz, were asked to ‘act’ like we were in serious discussion before the camera zoomed in on us for a too close encounter of ‘why the focus on Single Parents and how the idea for JS came about.” The RTM team then zeroed in on Rainah and her four little heroes before zooming off to Desa Mentari to focus on single mum Shanti and her girls…meanwhile we let the pix do the talking…

Food Galore

2008-04-05T23:41:00.006+08:00

What do you do with 1,000 worth of food fair tickets that's been bought and paid for by someone else? One teacher of the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan in SS15 Subang Jaya was faced with this happy predicament when one person agreed to sponsor RM1,000 worth of tickets but could not make it to the food fair itself. The solution? Pass it to Jumble Station's single parents and let them have a shot at picking the 'meals' they'd rather eat.
Unfortunately, most of single parents were either too busy working to go to the school itself or they couldn't go because they lacked the transport to bring their kids along. Sabariah Hussin and her 3 kids were not able to go there because the kids had extra classes to attend and wouldn't get there on time, the Single Parents of Desa Mentari didn't have transport to get there and didnlt want to spend their money on taxis. This left Rainah and her four boisterious boys to take up the slack so they were escorted and driven to the school by JS volunteers Rong Tau and John with instructions to buy as many cookies, cakes and etc so that these in turn can be handed over to the single parents who could not make it today,,, All pix taken by Jonathan Khoo

Easter - genesis united 2

2008-04-05T22:32:00.000+08:00

Genesis united 2 join hands with grace assembly to hold this Easter event in Sunway mentari. They had 50 children and 20 adults. Check out these pictures…

The Star's centrespread report in the Metro pages

2008-03-31T22:48:00.006+08:00

Monday March 31, 2008
A life-line for single parents
By LIM CHIA YING

A YOUNG mother loses her husband – the family's sole breadwinner – suddenly, leaving her at a loss as to what she should do.
All these years, she has been a housewife, staying home to care for her four children, but on the fateful day, she is forced to take on her husband's role when he drowns.
This was the nightmare that 30-year-old Rainah Kinsang faced. As if coping with the trauma of her loss was not enough, the Sabahan had to get back on her feet quickly to find a way to pay the bills and put food on the table for her children.

Thankfully for Rainah and her school-going children, hope came in the nick of time – in the form of Jumble Station, a community outreach initiative founded by three women dedicated to helping single parents in need.
Mary Anne Tan, Sanice Yap and Lim Lian See had come up with the idea of opening a centre to sell items, donated by the public, at very cheap prices to raise funds for single parents, leveraging on the experience they had with jumble sales.
“We realised that in many cases, single mums in particular require cash to pay for their immediate needs like gas to cook and groceries, and to settle their electricity bills or house rent, as they have no source of income without their husbands,” said Tan.

For Rainah, Jumble Station, which opened in August last year, is a godsend. She now helps out at the centre located at Angsana Flats in USJ 1 and is paid a monthly allowance. Her children study at the nearby SJK (C) Chee Wen so she walks them to school.
Occasionally, Tan and Lim would give her bottles of hair conditioner donated by members of the public. Rainah is always delighted and extremely grateful for this, as she says the conditioner makes her hair very smooth.
“Single parents like Rainah fall below the radar, are scattered all over, and are rarely exposed to items like conditioners that may be ordinary to us but are a luxury to them.”

Lim stresses that Jumble Station is not a welfare organisation. She prefers to refer to Tan and herself as social entrepreneurs, whose aim is to help meet single parents' emergency needs.
“We'll help pay urgent bills and look after them for several months before linking them up with the relevant authorities, like churches or other organisations.
“Currently, we are supporting five or six single parents. We would first assess their situation and financial needs, by making house visits and talking to their neighbours, to ensure that our funds are extended only to genuine single parents,” said Lim, who is a single mother herself.
“But, more than just meeting their financial needs, our centre is also designed to give single parents items that they need, which they would otherwise have to buy.”
She added that Jumble Station was also about empowerment, so that single parents could be financially independent in the long term, either by owning or running small businesses.
Tan said one of the questions they were most often asked was why single parents did not look for jobs to earn an income.
The reason, she said, was that most of them had very young children who could not afford to let their mum out of their sight.
“The children have already lost their father, and they are sometimes too young to understand. So, if their mum is not around either, what do you think would happen?
“Also, there is the problem of logistics. The low-income families certainly cannot afford cars and some places are not accessible without your own transport. It is therefore not because they don't want to work but because of circumstances. This is something which people must understand,” she continued.
According to Tan, the centre accepts almost everything, but the items at the top of their list are electrical goods, a fridge, hi-fi player, microwave oven, ovens, cake mixers, sewing machines, computer CPUs, handphones, sofas, beds and mattresses.
A myriad of items, like clothes, bags, shoes, house decor items and even television sets can be found here, some neatly stacked on display shelves contributed by Hai-O.
“Sometimes single mums tell us that they would like to bake cakes or sew clothes to sell but currently, we do not have sewing machines or ovens to let them do so.
“So, it would really help if anyone could donate these items. I believe that everyone has something in their home which may not be of value to them but would be to others,” she added.
Tan said she would like to collaborate with companies whereby firms could have a collection day once every three months or six months and encourage their staff to bring any household items, and Jumble Station would come by to collect the items and sell them at the centre.

An interesting ongoing effort is the trade-up concept, which Tan explained was somewhat like barter trade but the items swapped would increase in value each time.
“It's something that no one has done before. We started off by posting online our RM5 toy train and anyone could join in this fun charity effort by trading off their unwanted stuff, just as long as the item is better or more expensive that the previous item.
“We are now at the stage of the watch item and it will continue until, hopefully, we achieve our objective - our swap for a van! We really need a van to ferry the single parents around and to collect items because we are so handicapped without one now,” said Tan.
Jumble Station is located at F1-01-05, Block F, Angsana Flats, Subang Mewah USJ 1. Its operation hours are from 11am to 9.30pm, Mondays to Saturdays, and from 3pm to 9.30pm on Sundays.
To help or to find out more, call Tan at 016-220 2958 or Lim at 012-387 1757, or visit www.jumblestation1.blogspot.com.

Media Moves

2008-03-28T10:30:00.004+08:00

Well well... the media is gradually discovering JS and liking it enough to want to highlight it in their respective papers. New Straits Times was among the first to kick off this media train ride and then Klang Valley's most hip local Malay paper Kosmo called us up for an interview followed soon after by Subang Jaya's very own local community paper SJ Echo. Both Kosmo and SJ Echo interviews were held on the same day and the same time (since they ain't rivals) and it was nice sharing with them what JS was trying to achieve and what we really need. I'm still waiting for the pix that the Kosmo photographer promised to send to me ...

And then there was The Star! At last soneone from the People's Paper, my old alma paper (was there from 1983-1993) realised that JS is worth some printers ink enough to highlight us in the paper in a more indepth basis... well we did have one small article about Court 10 conducting a donation collection drive but that was to coincide with Lee Hwa Beng's visit to his potential voters. This time around Lim Chia Ying scoured the USJ1 area to find us and we were able to share quite a bit about how JS got its start, what we've done so far and where we aim to go next. What was nice was that the photgrapher was able to snap a pix of single mother Rainah just as she was ready to herd her three feisty boys to afternoon school. I grabbed the opportunity to snap off shots as the Star reporter and photographer were taking photos of them.. and now we just await the printed articles and we hope more people will know about JS and the needs of Single Parents and want to step up to provide items or like Josephine did.. help sponsor a single mother for six months until things get more settled past the grieving period or she obtains a more regular source of income ... Antz

Trade Up 4 JS (Round 2 - concludes)

2008-03-23T08:45:00.002+08:00

Trade Up 4 JS (Round 2)

Round two has just concluded and this time, Lucky the dog was traded up for a watch… and no ordinary watch either! This watch is from Sereena and it’s got the words “My problem is You” on it, making it a uniquely interesting and unusual watch indeed.

Now why you wonder would we settle for a watch? Well for one thing, a watch marks the time of the day, a watch tells us how many more hours we have left of each day. A watch is a timeless reminder of how little time we have left to leave our mark on this earth.

I’m reminded of Benjamin Franklin a man of many talents and interests, a printer by trade, a scientist by fame, and a man of action by all accounts (culled from the Internet), who once said and I quote, “Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”

On that same note of not wasting time, American motivational author and speaker Dale Carnegie also said something that I personally like, “Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.”

Amen, let the winds of caring for the down trodden sweep through you and the community you live in and make Trade Up 4 JS your newest hobby because there’s a poor Single Parent out there that’s having a particularly bad ‘time’ right now and we need to reach out to this soul.

Round Three is now on…let’s see what will be traded up this ‘time’ around….

Campus Cooperation

2008-03-22T10:53:00.004+08:00

We had a chance recently to share about Jumble Station to some college students from the Sunway International School. The Deputy Principal Mrs A. Alagarani learnt about JS existence from a mutual friend, dripped by for a visit last month, liked what she saw and felt that the students in her school would benefit greatly from participating in what JS is doing. It seems these students have to put in some 10 hours of community work before they can get their Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

The key purpose is to get the youngsters out of the classrooms and into the real world and for these relatively 'happy' youngsters to be more aware of the 'unhappiness' of the poorer folks as well as to have them actively doing something that can make the neighbourhood they study in, a far better place. With Jumble Station and its little off shoot JS Jr at Desa Mentari Sunway, being literally at their doorstep, it makes a great deal of sense to partner with JS, not forgetting the fact that JS is still the newest kid on the block where charity outreach is concerned.

During the presentation by Mary Anne, the co-founder of JS, students were told of the many ways in which the school could lend a hand - from organising a thematic collection every month (a paper collection one month, an electrical items the next month and toys the following month etc), there could also be a voluntary teaching programme where the youngsters can take turns organising a reading and writing session once or twice a week for only an hour for the children of some 20 single parents at Desa Mentari. Alternatively, they could also be involved in promoting the JS Jr shop at Desa Mentari by sending out the flyers, going door to door to sell items from JS Jr or manning a table filled with toys and knick knacks on the ground floor to drive more customers to the JS Jr store on level 1.

Of greater interest would be the youngsters willingness to participate in the Trade Up 4 JS game where they can use their IT savviness to post items online or email pix of items being offered for trade to manyants@gmail.com so that the game really starts to gather momentum. Considering this is a first for Malaysia, it should be an interesting experiment for the school to be a part of. Deputy Principal Rani says that the students will begin in earnest assisting us around April and supervisor Michael Hills will be there to make sure the campus cooperation arrangement goes smoothly... on our part, JS is really happy to welcome like minded and visionary partners like Sunway International School on board our train of help to the poor!

Converting books to Cash

2008-03-16T19:06:00.000+08:00

Mary Anne and I went out to sell old books that were given by the faithful Js supporters. We had 2 begs filled with books. These books are collected by Js, sorted out into sections then we personally send it to the books seller at the flee market in Petaling Jaya. He is happy and so are we because it is a win, win situation.

* pictures taken by Jonathan Khoo