Koala Klass

Single mums Jayapratha and Sumathi as well as this little ant, got the chance to don a chef’s hat and an apron and try our hand at some artistic cooking in one of CultureRun’s series of Shareshops (workshops where skilled women practitioners share their skills) as part of this year’s International Woman’s Day events. This particular class was a DIY Food Art class by Samantha Lee who is fast making a name for herself as an online food artist who creatively designs her children’s meals as edible works of culinary art.

For this class, some 18 people had turned up at the Starhill Gallery Muse level and the proceeds for this class will be donated to Jumble Station/PWP to help poor single parents. The theme for the class was how to make a koala dish and Samantha very cleverly took us through this fascinating lesson so much so, everyone including this kitchen klutz (me) couldn’t wait to try our hand at making the dish. Paired off as a team of three, we sliced, diced, fried and decorated our dish with a difference – we made two single mum koalas complete with baby too while the others too used their imagination and cooked up some interesting variations on the koala theme. Both  Jaya and Sumathi were so inspired, they want to go home and try their hand at making interesting dishes and they asked when the next free cooking class will be held again… any one keen to teach cooking and baking for free???? 

Making space at Jaya One for PWP to assist poor single parents

Jaya One Mall is fast becoming a happening place in Petaling Jaya and yesterday it announced its plan to team up with Parents Without Partners Bhd (PWP) to assist poor single parents through various programmes planned for the year.

First off, it gave PWP’s social entrepreneurship arm Jumble Station (JS) a space in P1 of the new annexe called The School to run and manage a recycling centrer. This means that retailers in Jaya One, visitors and shoppers can now drop their donated items there and these items will then be given to single parents and their kids who need them while those not needed can be sold on site or at the Amcorp flea market on Sundays. The cash raised will be used to assist single parents in their hour of need.

Kicking off the event was a month long photo exhibition of 12 single parent families that are among the 50 hardcore poor being assisted by PWP out of the 250 families on its list currently. The photos taken by Azrul Abdullah are a testament to his incredible talent as a photographer capable of capturing images with enduring appeal.

The spontaneous, exuberant joy of being photographed as a family was wonderfully and artistically captured which brought smiles to the eyes of many a jaded viewer. These outsized coloured photos were printed for free by a very generous printer and the single parent concerned, can’t wait to have the photo take pride of place in their little low cost flats!

The launch of the collaboration between Jaya One and PWP went off very well with around 10 media personnel and invited guests turning up for the event which started at 3pm on Tuesday. CEO Charles gave a moving speech about how his lovely wife with all her perks  - maids, driver etc still says she’s stressed out, how much more difficult then will it be for single parents who are struggling daily on little to no finances and resources.

He adds that through the recycling centre at Jaya One, PWP should be able to have the exposure it needs to raise greater awareness of the plight of poor single parents and galvanise the public to bring and donate items that can generate the funds to bring about a change in the lifestyle of the poor single parents.

The cycling centre should be functional by April and his team hopes to feature various activities that will result in a heightened understanding of the difficulties that single parents and their children face daily. PWP on its part is delighted to have been chosen as a partner in this CSR programme for this very hip and happening place in the heart of Petaling Jaya. Where in Subang our partners were the low cost flat dwellers, now with Jaya One, we hope to rope in the middle and upper crust folks to collaborate with us to empower more single parents to lead better lives. 

DUMC Dream Cup golfers assist single mum Jaya

DUMC Golf team helps single mum

Single mum Jaya was doing her studies in fashion designing when her hubby abandoned her and their three kids leaving them all in the lurch. Her parents stepped in to help out but it could not be for long since that would deplete their hard earned savings for their own peaceful retirement plans.

Things got a bit better when she got herself a clerical job but last month, her world turned bleak when she was laid off by her boss who was unhappy that she wouldn’t stay past her working hours to do overtime for the company.

Jaya says that she can’t work longer hours because her two younger sons, twins – Elijah and Issac have to be taken home from the baby sitter’s house without undue delays and her eldest son Matthias need to be supervised in his homework as well.

Sad, depressed and totally stressed out, she was urged to contact PWP for assistance by DUMC’s Pastor Margaret. After some soul searching, she realized that she needed an income generating source that would allow her to earn her own living while still being able to spend time with her sons.

One possible solution is for her to find a shoplot near where she lives in Puchong, where she can run an op shop on her own, get her items for sale and supplies from JS and work at her own flexi time. JS on its part will help to equip the shop, pay for the two months rental deposit and provide guidance and mentoring for those early periods.

As if on cue, DUMC’s golf club organizer Issac turned up at JS that same afternoon to offer the full amount successfully collected from a fundraising golf tournament known as DUMC Dream Cup, by its male members to the tune of RM2,100. This will be the seed money for Jaya to start off her own second hand shop and hopefully help her to become more entrepreneurial in the process.

On behalf of this very happy and grateful single mum, PWP would like to say “:Thank you DUMC golfers and do keep the generosity ball rolling over the various gold courses indeed.

Gifts & Hampers from Kiara Properties frens

It’s always lovely to meet friends and Kiara Properties management and staff have become old friends indeed to PWP and JS folks. Recently we caught up again with Kiara Prop’s chief honcho NK Tong and his illustrious father Datuk Alan Tong, the mastermind behind the huge success of the development of Plaza Mont Kiara and several other prestigious developmental landmarks in the Klang Valley region alone.

Once more, Kiara Properties donated several Christmas and Chinese New Year hampers as well as premium items that had been given to its staff over the two festive seasons.

These are now given for the benefit of poor single parents as well as for sale in Amcorp mall to help raise funds for single parents in need.

The items range from cookies to chocolates, teddy bears to thumb drives, liquor to towels. Single parents and their kids who received the goodies together with their monthly groceries were so excited and happy with the unexpected gifts. Thanks once again to the management and staff of Kiara Properties for this wonderful largesse and compassionate love for poor single parents. 

Fun at Jaya One photo shoot

It’s funny how life does come in a circle, how the lives of some people cross your path and then they disappear forever. Others criss cross into your life at different times and it is always marvelous to catch up with such friends.

Today was one such day – I finally caught up with Azrul K Abdullah, now a well respected, hugely creative photographer who was once my colleague in The Sun newspaper several years back.

Back then he was a rookie reporter who came to work on a racing bike, it brought back memories of me cycling to work from Paramount Garden, PJ to The Star newspaper at Section 13 – of course my bike was a chopper bike costing less than RM100 while his was a couple of thousand ringgits if I’m not mistaken.

Now, he’s grown in stature and reputation and has emerged as a very creative, very talented photographer who volunteered to photograph 12 single parent families and Parents Without Partners co-founders for a special event to be carried out at Jaya One soon.

It wasn’t easy getting all 12 single parent and their kids to go for the photo shoot, some single parents pulled out at the last minute on the flimsiest of excuses, others could not bring all their children due to school activities or last minute changes.

One family, single mother Susan who suffered from a severe stroke which partially paralysed her was slated for the photo shoot but was tragically killed in a traffic accident and now, her two younger daughters and son are being cared for by various relatives.

Tragedy notwithstanding, the photos taken of the single parents and their kids will remain a lasting reminder of this special moment in time, when their photos of a happy albeit poor family is captured for life on digital prints – something they never could have afforded given their straitened circumstances.

The co-founders, Lian See, Sanice Kam and Mary Anne Tan were also asked to participate in the photo shoot at Jaya One’s The School and while waiting took some zany shots of themselves having fun with the various props and backgrounds that the colourful learning environment had to offer.

The photo taking was fun, funny and enjoyable but the final photos in full colour of all the single parents and the co-founders will only be unveiled at a date to be determined.

What’s 2014 like for poor single parents?

We’re reaching the end of January. It’s only been the first month of 2014 yet the prognosis is that it has not been good for poor single parents. Imagine, they have been courageously battling against odds to raise their kids on very little money and even less help from their families or outside help, all these while.

For the last 7 years, Jumble Station has done its best to help alleviate their worries and their financial woes but the recent rise in the cost of food items, basic stuff and even school needs are putting an even more heavy burden on their current load.

If it is extremely tough for a two parent family to provide for their families in these trying times, imagine the pain and agony poor single parents have to undergo with the coming months painting an even more bleak future for them. What can  JS do to assist these long suffering single parents – we can only try to raise our assistance to them a notch higher and further empower them to seek to increase their income source in more creative ways.

We will do that by collaborating with different groups and organisations that can partner JS in making a positive difference in the lives of single parents in dire need. We can do that if those who can afford, those who have the creative input and the willingness to share their skills and their time, to work  alongside us to bring about an impactful change to this much forgotten group – the poor single parents!

The Christmas message of the joy of giving and God’s love for the living was put into real life when JS had its Christmas cum Back2School programme last night. A total of

47 single parents and their kids turned up for the event and it was a night of fun and laughter, joy and happiness indeed.

The event was made possible with the blessing of RM20,000 donation from Nestle as part of its Nestle Family Day event and that went towards the purchase of Mydin shopping vouchers for all the children’s school uniform, school shoes and a school bag. 

While the kids were delighted with the RM150 vouchers they each got, the single mums, single dads and a few really poor families were delighted to be presented with a Mydin goodie bag and a hefty goodies bag plus a 10kg rice each from Pastor Ryan’s church in USJ 9 Subang Jaya.

The goodie bags, rice and the RM150 voucher each will definitely ease the financial burden of the parents during this long year end holidays and reinforce what Christmas is all about – reaching out to those in need with God’s Love and to spread his Joy to all mankind.