First steps for the 9th time

It is barely 2 and half months more to A Piece Of Hope : Mt Kinabalu Chapter 9. Our charitable work is beginning to heat up. As of now, there are 300 registered climbers and all are already preparing themselves by way of training or getting the right gears to assault Mt Kinabalu's summit of 4095 meters.

But without the charity side of things, A Piece Of Hope wouldn't be complete, like a wife without her husband. As the saying goes, 'Behind every successful man there is a supporting wife'. In our case, the husband is the charity work and the wife is the Mt Kinabalu climb and its climbers.

The husband's work is never ending. Our charity work likewise continues year round even when the climb is completed. Thus at this time of the year, we work on selecting the right children based NGO. This time around, the committee members went to visit Persatuan Insan Istimewa Cheras Selangor (PIICS) on 18 April.

PIICS was established in 2009. Relatively young NGO but not lacking in its zeal to help and shelter mentally and physically challenged children of all ages, race and religion. Housed in a corner house in Cheras, the resident children are 28 of which 3 are day cared.

This particular home as compared to the other mentally and physically challenged homes we helped in the past, does not take in severe cases. So its daily caring task is not so difficult and demanding. Having 4 permanent staff is just sufficient in keeping PIICS overheads manageable.

Madam Lee the home's founder and current president said, 'With our present staff size and nett usable space in the house, we can only take in maximum 30 children'. She shared with us that almost all of the children do not pay anything to stay there. So you would expect that their monthly operational cost would be high but in actual fact it is not, only approximately RM15k per month.

Mr. Ten, the secretary of PIICS and son of Madam Lee, shared that most of their monetary donations come during Chinese New Year and other Chinese related festivity. This would last them for the whole year. At other times of the year, they get donations in kind like food stuffs. Mr. Ten added that they do not have a planned calendar for donation drive as yet.

Being only 6 years old, PIICS already has a vision to have their own premises so that they can expand their work. First thing on their mind is to buy up the present house and renovate it to make more space for more children. But where to get money is the biggest question.

This is where A Piece Of Hope : Mt Kinabalu Chapter 9 comes into play. With the committee members in agreement to help PIICS, our charitable work starts..... are you with us?

We welcome you to join us this year for APOH 9.