JS featured in July issue of Her World

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!