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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Assalamualaikum,
Please read the caption that I captured in today's edition of Malay Mail. If
it possible that we start a fund for them - may be give them money, food or
even clothes to them.
Regards,
Isma
MM Focus: Left alone horror
By LEE TEE JONG01 August 2000
IT WAS a heartbreaking sight.
Four young children left to fend for themselves - trying to stem their
hunger with nothing but instant noodles.
Tears nearly came to my eyes when I heard the sad tale of 10-year-old Hamid,
eight-year-old Hafiq, five-year-old Siti and three-year-old Suriah (not
their real names).
Since last Tuesday, the four children have been eating, sleeping, playing,
going to school - all on their own in a flat in Singapore.
Their father, a 34-year-old forklift driver, had gone to Indonesia.
Their parents got divorced in January and their 27-year-old mother visits
them occasionally.
I was shocked when I walked into the three-room flat last Sunday.
Dirty clothes were piled high on the washing machine. And more strewn all
over the bedroom.
The place stank of urine.
The floor was greasy, and my white socks turned black.
On the kitchen floor lay a chicken bone with ants crawling all over it.
The cups and plates stacked in the kitchen sink were coated with dirt.
And when little Suriah opened the fridge, I gasped - it was empty!
Their father told the children he would be back "soon".
He left behind S$10 (RM21) and 40 packets of Maggi mee.
"My daddy told me to take care of the others. He said he will be back in two
weeks," said Hamid.
Before their father went off, he asked a neighbour to look after the
children.
"He asked me, if I had the time, to drop in and check on the children,"
said the 49-year-old neighbour, a housewife, who lives in the next block.
Every night, the children keep each other company in their misery by
sleeping side-by-side on the cold linoleum floor in the hall.
The two older boys would wake up aabout 6.30am. They don't have an alarm
clock but manage somehow. They would put on their uniforms and go to school.
Without breakfast.
On the first day after dad left, Hamid handed his younger brother S$2 after
taking his share of $2. They spent it on food during recess.
Daddy's S$10 ran out in two days.
The girls would watch TV, play with each other and wait for their brothers
to come home from school.
The boys, both in the same primary school, were not given the house keys by
their father.
So Hamid would open the window, push in an umbrella and unlatch the door.
He would then cook lunch - five packets of Maggi mee - in the same unwashed
pot. Whatever was left from lunch was dinner. (There were just 10 packets
left by Sunday afternoon.)
They drank tap water.
The children didn't bathe till Friday, and then they dried themselves with
dirty clothes because they couldn't find any towels.
The children's paternal grandmother lives in the next block.
She said her son had told her to keep an eye on the children while he was
away.
"Since the divorce, their father has been depressed. He told me he was going
to Indonesia. I visited them every day and I brought them food. I do what I
can to help them," said the 60-year-old woman.
But the children had a different story to tell.
According to them, grandma she visited them only on Saturday morning.
The neighbour said she had met the father on July 24, a day before he left
for Indonesia.
"He showed me an air ticket to Indonesia. He told me he would be back in two
weeks and asked me to look after his children if I had the time."
The neighbour dropped in to check on the children on Thursday.
She was shocked by the mess and the dirt.
"I helped to clean up the house and washed some of the clothes. What you see
now is much better than what I saw when I first came."
Realising the trouble the children were in, she tried to take the youngest
home with her.
"Suriah started crying and said she wanted her daddy," she said.
In the end, she pacified the girl by taking her back to her siblings.
The neighbour's daughter then made a police report.
The police are investigating and would be getting in touch with the Ministry
of Community Development and Sports.
For now, the children are with the neighbour and her daughter - the boys are
with her while the girls have gone to stay with her daughter and her family
at their Woodlands flat for the time being.
Little Hamid, the man of the house, had tried to be brave. But when he met
us, he broke down.
Hafiq looked bewildered. He didn't say a word to his sobbing brother.
Even if he did, Hamid might not have been consoled. - TNP
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