Fatimah (second right) talks to a blood donor while Arif (left) and Manjeet (centre) look on. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING (April 8): A break-of-fast for the homeless and poor single mothers with many children will be held at the Community Social Support Centre (CSSC) in Jalan Abell here on April 14.
Minister of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said they have so far have managed to gather 11 homeless people and also poor single mothers with many children. “These groups of people rarely get an opportunity to break their fast outside their homes,” she said after launching a blood donation campaign organised by Persatuan Pembangunan Insan Sarawak (PPIS) together with Sarawak General Hospital’s Blood Bank at Everrise outlet in Mile 4 here yesterday.
Apart from breaking the fast, several corporate companies such as Everrise will give food packages and also food items for ‘sahur’ and cash to the poor attending the event.
Fatimah thanked Everrise for agreeing to donate 60 food packages, Serapi Hotel for providing food and drinks for the break-of-fast and other individuals for sponsoring other items.
“Hopefully, a programme like this will be well received by the public. If anyone knows any homeless and hardcore poor people out there, please refer them to us so that we can bring them to break fast with us on that day. If they are Muslims, we will invite them to pray with us,” she said.
On the blood donation drive and organ donation pledge campaign organised by Persatuan Pembangunan Insan Sarawak (PPIS), Fatimah said hospitals need blood all the time because accidents happen daily. There’s operations to perform, mothers who give birth also need blood. Cancer and Thalassemia patients also need blood.
“It doesn’t matter if it is a fasting month or not; hospitals need blood every day. Just remember that blood stock also has shelf-life,” she said.
PPIS chairman Manjeet Sidhu and Everrise Departmental Store commercial director Arif Kwan were also present at the event.
The programme that started at 10am yesterday was organised by PPIS and sponsored by Everise and was also assisted by the Leo Club of SMK St Joseph.
Some 60 blood donors came forward to donate blood, and were later given goodie bags by Everrise.
Meanwhile, Arif hoped to have more corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme with government departments and agencies and NGOs in the future.
“We are very happy to support this and hopefully we can have more of this kind of activity in the future,” he said.
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