Getting acquainted with Aquaria

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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!.