Orphanage Library Project: Yayasan Ain Maisarah, Chemor

Come, let us build another orphanage library!

This time let us do it for Rumah Anak Yatim Yayasan Ain Maisarah, Chemor, Perak.

Let us aim to give them 1000 books by mid-Ramadhan!

Having said that, let me brief you a little bit on the orphanage. 3 weeks ago, Bro Faizal Pot and me visited the orphanage after our oldboys weekend in STAR Ipoh. Thanks to Pak Manap, the Nurul Hidayah Orphanage in Bukit Gantang (we did the library at Nurul Hidayah few months back) who directed us to the home and told us to meet the orphanage manager, Ustaz Yuzrim.

Based on the directions given by Pak Manap and some phone calls to Ustaz Yuzrim, we had no problem to reach the home; located along the main road towards Ipoh right after Pekan Chemor.

The home housed some 40 plus boys ranging from age of 7 up to 17 years old and governed by board of trustees. Ustaz Yuzrim, a young chap (in his 30s) is the secretary of the yayasan cum manager of the home.

Ustaz Yuzrim told us that the old wooden house cum hostel is also known as "Rumah Ilmu" because the children's of the late owner of the house all went to universities and become respected figures in their career. That was long time ago as I was told that the youngest son who is a doctor and already 70 years of age.

What struck me most was the peaceful environment of the home.Come on, boys home supposed to be opposite - "war zones". Not the case of this home though.It is in great order. The lawn is clean. The boys are behaving well. We saw a group of boys studied for UPSR exams quietly in one corner of the surau.

As we talked, I saw bags of laundry lined up in the office and presumably it belongs to the boys and I asked Ustaz Yuzrim what's is the rationale of sending the boys clothings for 'dobi'?

And this is his answer,

" You see, we have calculated the cost of having washing machines together with electricity and water bills for the home and if you compare it to the cost of sending it to the laundry, it is almost the same", he explained.

"Plus, the home looks nice to the visitors with no 'ampaian' around; the boys will have nice clean shirts everyday and of course look nice and handsome and they will have more time to focus on their study"

Man, Bro Faizal and me agreed silently that this young ustaz was talking about something 'deep' here.

And he pointed out to the "mini-zoo" they have in the courtyard. The boys keep a squirrel, chicken and birds and he revealed it to us why.

"You see, by having this animals around we want to instill love for god's creatures in their heart".

"And, the animals will make this place calmer to the boys and visitors alike".

And he brought us to one section of the home where we see a fish pond 'under construction'.

"It is all done by the boys lead by an elder boy who is in Form 4".

"It was all their idea to have fish pond and they did it themselves".

I thought the pond was done by professional,seriously.

As we go along that afternoon over cup of tea and a plate of cempedak goreng, your conversation went back to what we supposed to do; to create a library for the home. Happened to be, they were also looking into having a library for the boys.

And they just bought a stack of books costing some RM400 and Ustaz Yuzrim related to us on their recent courtesy visit to Pak Manap's Nurul Hidayah orphanage (right after we built the library at Nurul Hidayah) and one of the boys asked to borrow Harry Potter's books from Nurul Hidayah's library to read at home. And he told us that they really devoured it when they returned to Chemor!

The story really touched my heart! Imagine how a book can change their life.

So we decided immediately, the next library will be at this very home.

Our target is 1000 books plus a set of encyclopedia. We are going to raise RM13,000 at least by the end of this month.

And I have a good news for this.

For greater transparency, the funds to be raised this time will be channeled through Islamic Relief Malaysia's Orphanage Library Project. So no more funds going through my personal account as per previous library project we have done.

Here is the account number:

• Maybank: 5621 4270 8704
• CIMB : 1259 0000 804 058

All you have to do is to mail of fax the bank-in slip to us:

Islamic Relief Malaysia

31-7 Jalan SP2/1, Taman Serdang Perdana,

43300 Seri Kembangan,

Selangor.

Tel: 03-8948 6334

Fax:03-89487339

(If you fax or mail the slip appreciate your help to attention it for: "Islamic Relief's Orphanage Library Project")

For further info on this project : you can email me at : iskandar@irm.org.my or Tel: 03- 8948 6334

As I mentioned many times before and will mention it again and again, we are going to buy new and good books for the orphans. No secondhand books,please. Despite good intentions, it won't do justice for the orphans. Let us give something 'valuable' as a gifts to the orphans. I am not against utilising secondhand books but for this project, it is going to be like that. (I am still OK if you want to buy good and new books and channeled it to this project, though)

As for the books, out of 1000 books, 90% would be in Bahasa Melayu Tinggi and 10% would be in English. That's our pledge to support Bahasa Melayu. (Ah, you must be wondering why I write this entry in English then).

We also hope we can deliver the books by Ramadhan. Perhaps we can set up the library in the afternoon and have breaking fast together with the boys in the evening. For now let us work together to raise RM13,000 for the library at Yayasan Ain Maisarah's home.