Rumah Keluarga Kami

The most basic needs for a child to have a quality early part of their life is a 'good home'. Every parent plans and hopes to achieve that, of course that is the paternal instinct. What if the child does not have a responsible or abled-parent to provide for that good home? What happens then to the child? You might imagine him being in need most of the time, like in need of love, in need of proper guidance, in need of attention, etc. Some of these innocent children we see are orphan by choice or abandoned. Pity you might think but that is a fact affecting our modern society.

Thanks be to God that these childrens have another home to go to, provided by good samaritan strangers. I am refering to of course is an orphanage. The orphanage that APOH has selected this year through a recce done on 23rd February in Kajang, does not want to associate itself with definition of an orphanage but rather a home. That's why it is named Rumah Keluarga Kami (RKK) or in English, My Family Home.

RKK was established in 1990 by efforts of several caring individuals. It is now one of 10 homes under Yayasan Ozanam. It has now 40 children in its care living in 2 houses. These children comes from all walks of life. They are cared for like in any other home right up till after secondary education. Mr. Bryan Perera, Projects Coordinator of RKK, mentioned that further education will be provided for these children if they show their interest in continuing studies.

Seeing the need to provide a better home for these children, RKK embarked on a building project in 2007 by purchasing a land adjacent to the current house. Today after 7 years, the new 3 storey building is completed and ready for occupancy in May 2014. The new building is a testimony of RKK's commitment to strive to better the lives of these and future orphaned children. Mr. Bryan commented that this new building can house 60 children. Many of the building materials and furnitures are donated by the general public. This has helped very much in reducing cost of building.

RKK's monthly expenditure is around RM25,000 and it is going up every year. Mr. Bryan said that they received a lot of food donation especially rice bags. This is evidently so as one of the hallways is lined with 2 metre high stacked-up rice bags. "Although we are moving into a new building, it does not mean that we don't need financial help. In fact we need it even more due to our expansion plans to help more unfortunate children out there", said Mr. Bryan.

With this visit concluded, APOH is now set yet again to embark on an adventurous donation drive in 'A Piece Of Hope Chapter 8: Mt Kinabalu Charity Climb 2014'. Our sight is set for a target donation collection of RM200,000. Help us to achieve it to better the lives of these children.

More information on Rumah Keluarga Kami, please visit www.ssvprkk.org.