During the Chinese New year our VP Mr Kevin Tan, together with staff of his company, the Sunway group, distributed goodies and angpows to Kerdau folks under their CSR program. He noted that the nearby orang asli community were underprivileged and asked whether Because could look into improving their lives especially when they had been badly hit by the recent flood. Because members decided to visit the village on 7 th March.
Thanks to prior arrangements made by our VP, the Chairman of the Kerdau School PTA Mr. Ang was on hand to brief us on the Orang Asli’s situation. After a simple lunch he kindly took us into the village which was a few kilometres through a palm oil plantation.
The headman of the Orang Asli and a few other members of their community took us to one of their long houses where we all sat down on the floor to listen to him talk.
It was heartening to hear they were coping quite well on their own with all the basic necessities taken care of. They had no immediate needs. The headman asked if we could provide them with a motorized sampan as they did not have one during the recent flooding of the area. After the discussion, we were taken to a building used as kindergarten. They needed to extend it to provide a dining place for the kids. Adjacent to the kindergarten was a brick house meant for the resident teacher. It had some cracks in the walls and was abandoned. One of the Orang Asli representatives asked if that could be repaired or needed to be rebuilt. Our President, a Civil Engineer immediately did a cursory check of the single storey building. There was no immediate danger of the house collapsing as the cracks were due to uneven ground settlement. Our President adviced the headman that if the cracks did not open up further indicating ground movement had stabilized, the cracks could be patched up with high strength mortar. Stiffeners could be erected to strength those walls which had slanted slightly. Members also noted that the few playground equipments near the kindergarten was in state of disrepair and rusted through.
The visit ended around 3pm.
*Because committee will be meeting end of March to decide whether to include this cause into our list of beneficiaries for the proposed Charity Hunt fund raising planned for August 2015.
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