GONG XI FA CAI

HERE'S WISHING ALL OUR SINGLE PARENTS, THEIR FAMILIES, FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS A "VERY HAPPY YEAR OF THE GOAT" AND MAY THIS NEW CHINESE YEAR BLEAT IN MANY MANY HAPPINESS AND GREAT HEALTH TO ALL FROM JUMBLESTATION AND PARENTS WITHOUT PARTNERS.

Good workers needed

Running a charity shop is never easy. Workers are an integral part of any charity organization. Volunteers are fine but volunteers come and go at their own time and their own flexibility. Workers on the other hand are the bedrock of the success of any endeavor but good workers are truly hard to find. In the case of a charity shop, workers with zeal, dedication, passion and integrity are like true diamonds so so hard to find.

The fact that a charity shop does not have the luxury of paying top dollar for great and passionate workers make it doubly hard to find such human gems. Jumble Station and Parents Without Partners biggest headache is finding and keeping good workers and with the long hours involved in working in the shops from 10am-10pm daily the challenge is grueling indeed. Honesty is another trait that is vitally crucial in this charitable endeavor because one is dealing in cold hard cash on a daily basis and cash to a worker from an underprivileged background is temptation indeed. The other requirement of reliability is another much sought after characteristic much admired yet extremely hard to find in most workers of today. Nevertheless, there must be a gem of a worker or two out there somewhere willing to assist PWP to man its store at Jaya1 (The School) in shifts (10am-4pm and 4pm-9.30pm) daily. So if you know of anyone – a retired or newbie worker – do get them to call Mary Anne Tan -0162202958 immediately. You will earn our eternal gratitude if you can help us to unearth such worker gems to help our single parents cause. Thank you.

Back To School 2014 - A roaring success!!!

c This year's Back2School party was a huge huge success. It was a lovely time for the parents to mingle, share and catch up on their kids growth while they on their part were so so grateful to receive the RM150 per shopping voucher cards per child that will allow them to buy new school uniforms, school shoes and a bag at least. Many single parents were so touched that caring individuals would chip n to help them at this most difficult of times and they had tears in their eyes, grateful thanks and happy hearts when they walked out of the Angsana Hall in Subang Mewah yesterday with their bountiful gifts. A brief speech was given wherein Mary Anne as the co-founder urged the single parents to work towards making a home for their kids, teach them to rise above their straitened circumstances and be a shining example to their little ones. The pictures taken are shining examples of how the generosity of compassionate strangers can bring about joy in the lives of many struggling single parents and for that, we truly say "Thank You & God Bless You all".

Astro Chinese films JS

Astro Chinese discovered that PWP/Jumble Station is now at Jaya One (The School, Level P1, Recycle Centre) and chose to film us in action. Chinese News programme hostess Yvette came with her camerawoman and was able to filmthe lovely items currently on display in the glass cabinets as well as the profusion of interesting and colourful items on the wooden racks that took centre space at the Recycle Centre on Level P1. They were also able to do live interviews of single parents Annie and her daughter Kelly, Adrian Ong, single dad of Nisha, single mum Ann, co-founder Mary Anne and several customers to get a feel of what it is like to have a charity shop and urging the public to assist poor single parents with their donated items. They chose to zero in on the up-cycling aspects where Adrian utilized the Barbie dolls donated to PWP to dress them in specially designed Malay traditional costumes and the dolls are now on sale at Jaya One. They later drove over to Subang Jaya to film how JS is able to impact the lives of the poorer folks at Angsana Flats in USJ1. The crew came away impressed with the simple manner of how PWP and JS can use its recycling and up-cycling efforts to assist both the poor single parents and poor families in the Klang Valley region. Those who want to donate items can call or SMS Mary Anne at 016-2202958 for more information.

RM150 shopping voucher can bring joy this Christmas

....My, my, how time flies. Pretty soon Christmas will be on us, ringing in another new year. Yes, it will be a time of fun, happiness and joy as we say goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015 with our families and friends.


Single parents and their kids too want to celebrate Christmas and the New Year but they do so with some measure of fear – fear because both Christmas and the New Year are the most expensive time of the year for them! Okay, perhaps they can do without the presents for Christmas but they do have to spend money preparing for the new year- for their school going kids.

And money is so hard to come by for these poor single parents, struggling with low income, high cost of living with no savings whatsoever. Yet, each new school year, every school going child needs at least 2 new school uniforms, school shoes, socks, school bag, stationery and possibly even a track suit. That’s not counting the workbooks and ‘fees’ schools impose these days on parents to offset the high costs of education.

Many of our single parents of all races therefore, struggle to find the means to give their kids these basic items each year and it is for this reason, we ask if you would like to partner us in sponsoring and buying a RM150 shopping voucher (Mydin or Tesco) so that some 100 to 200 of these poor children will be as nicely ‘uniformed’ as your own kids or grandkids.

Our Ho Ho Ho Santa too needs your help to get toys for the smaller toddlers and tots as well fun stuff for kids ranging from 3 years old to teenagers and if you do want to do more for the 50 or so hardcore poor single parents we’re inviting for our Christmas & Back-to-School party on December 20 2014, just buy some extra groceries when you go shopping next time and pass them to us.

We’ll put them in a goody bag for the parents and have our dear Santa hand the groceries, the shopping vouchers and the toys to the poor single parents and their kids. We reckon we’ll need around RM20,000 to RM30,000 for this event alone so every little bit on your part will help lots. You can be sure of generating heartfelt joy and happiness to the people who most need your help. If you can’t go out to buy the groceries, toys or the shopping vouchers just bank in your donation/chq to: Parents Without Partners Bhd account (Public bank account no: 3155836224) and SMS 016-2202958 once it’s done so that we’re aware of your contribution.

We sincerely thank you for your willingness to participate in bringing joy to our single parents and their little ones and we look forward to making this December 20 party a lovely experience for all.

A HELPing hand to Jumble Station

Painting a wall may not seem like a big contribution towards charitable activities for Uni kids but six students of psychology from HELP University learnt recently just how important a clean white wall can be for Jumble Station’s needs. The wall which used to be grubby looking and filled with graffiti got a much needed coat of white paint when the students slapped on a fresh coat for at least ¾ of the length of the wall. It needed to be painted because the wall, both the left and the right side of the wall next to JS shop acts as a nice clean backdrop for when we need to take photos of single parents and their children. The photo sessions are usually about the only means for single parents to have their family portraits taken since many can’t afford to pay for photo sessions in a professional studio. In some cases, the photos taken by JS were the only and last memories of a parent for the child following the unexpected demise of the single parent. This was the case with Susan a single mum who suffered for two years from a debilitating facial stroke and was unable to work during that time. JS assisted with groceries and financial aid to enable her to seek medical aid and treatment. She finally could get back to work as a freelance accountant when JS co-founders paid her family a visit and took lovely photos of Susan with her two younger daughters. A month later, she was tragically killed in a car accident and the photo taken was the last tangible memory of happier times. For the six students who participated in this wall painting community contribution, the lesson learnt was clear – no effort by a willing and compassionate heart is ever really wasted. The joy it can bring is immeasurable indeed!

NGOs participate in Make Weekend

Foreign students who were here on a short exchange programme with the Sunway University were given an interesting challenge during a recent Make Weekend event. Some 35 students and 5 charity organizations were asked to work on key issues that are plaguing the Malaysian charity sector.


The five charity organizations covered various sectors of society – cats, elderly folks, Do Something Good volunteers, disabled children and single parents under Parents Without Partners. From 10am till 5pm the enthusiastic youths cudgeled their brains even as they interviewed each charity organization to get an idea of our problems galore.

Issues such as attracting and keeping volunteers and workers, digitizing paperwork and records, promoting and creating awareness, fund raising and monetizing crafts and the works of the charity recipients were among the many that cropped up in the brainstorming sessions.

Ideas flowed from creating a volunteer loyalty card with efforts rewarded with points exchangeable for reward items whether for the winner or the charity concerned, the digitizing of records and paperwork was also deemed a very good idea, to the point the team beat all the others for the top prize. Should be interesting to see if any one or party takes up this idea and develops it so that charity organisations here and globally can truly benefit from such innovative ideas.