Homeless being highlitghted in the newspaper

THEY are unwanted, neglected and shunned by their parents and society.

These teenagers, aged between 14 and 18 and numbering several hundred, live on the streets, exposing themselves to the underground activities thriving in the hidden parts of this city.”

I cant remember was it NST or Star that i read few days back ( n cant seem to cari it online) those homeless kids are rather bright, one of them left home age 12 after obtaining UPSR 3 A’s 2 B’s while another gal left after PMR who obtained 5a’s 3 b’s. The form 3 gal left coz father was abusive.

I had my very own up close n personal experience with homeless children. I was on an assignment for my undergrad, i managed to contact a lady from an NGO to bring me to the homeless kids. Accompanied with 2 other uni mate, we met the lady at the bridge near The Mall at 11:45pm. As i approached the lady, who was already with few kids, the lady salam me and whispered “y are u wearing tudung? you gonna scare these kids?!!!” and i was speechless, i did inform her i was from uia, couldnt she foresee we will come with tudung? anyway, i came out with a story quickly for the kids. The 3 of us were problematic children, being sent to a special programe by Social Welfare and we were suppose to be at Kem Ibadah but we ran away from the mosque, hence the attire.

The lady ajak the kids and i to lepak at the mamak, the ice breaking session went pretty well. I asked them how do they survive in the city since its been a year we’ve been off the street. So they told us their story. The youngest was 9 years old. Among the stories, dad remarried and stepmom refused to have him around, sexual abuse/ physical abuse parents, poverty, parents pass away and no relative willing to take them in since relatives pun kais pagi makan pagi.

The were dressed nicely, i asked them where do they get their shower? They go to the public toilets but if they have extra funds they will take up those RM50 hotel room to shower and have a good rest. Money? they steal handphone mostly. What was their tactic? they said usually kt mamak, ppl will placed their handphone on the table and busy reading the newspaper, especialy those who read and put up the newspaper, it will block them from seeing their handphone on the table, that’s when they take it. THey would then sell the handphone at various shops. They said, these shops knows we steal it so we dont really get a good ammount for it. But watever amount we get, we will share it. Any “income” of the day will be shared with everyone, for food mainly. If there’s extra money, they’ll buy new baju at chow kit.

If they dont “earn” anything what do they eat? They will walk at the chow kit area, grab one or two fruits quitely frm the vendor. Most stalls vendor will are busy with customers, they dont notice these kids grabbing one or two fruits (i.e apple, mango, oranges) Or they will go to back alley of restaurant to ask for extra food.

Where do they sleep? Under the bridge at The Mall.

While we were busy talking, the lady left us. Of coz we were panic. How could the lady sukehati tinggalkn kitorang. We were running out of topic, good thing one of my friend (my cousin actually) was like a moving jukebox, we talk about music and the kids started singing to all the song we mentioned. My cousin pun ikut layan nyanyi, segala lagu lah, dari rock zaman 90-an pun diorang layan.  It was almost 2am already. We spend another 30mins or so and i came out with the story that we really have to get back to the mosque for the Kem Ibadah before the facilitator/ustazah wakes up for the qiamulail programme. We told them qiamulail starts at 3am so we  have to rush and sneak in the mosque again. Pheww, lucky thing we went back in one piece. We sempat walk with them along the kaki lima kedai2 kat KL, diorang sempat lagi tunjuk men and prositute going to the hotel rooms and all.

Few days later, i went to Jabatan Kebajikan for further research, wah diorang trus deny my story, blum dgr lagi waht i have to say. I just mentioned the word homeless children, and the lady was denying it. She said those sume illegal imigrant, from mynmar, and bangsa2 lain. tu sume sindiket. she said, we do our rounds up quite often and never see locals.She just refused to listen to my story. She said i should come again another day, she will put aside all papers and articles for me. But as day passed by, i kept calling her she refused to answer my call. mcm2 alasan her colleague kasi.

And after the NST highlighted on these children, among the respond gov gave was

It is sad to see such kids going through all this. A 17 years old couple even record their sexual activity and sell it to earn money.