Happenings Around Us - 26 Oct 2015 / I am Back

[Saravanan Kandasamy]

Hi All,

Welcome to My Malaysian Indian Bulletin Board (myMIBB). If you are receiving this email, then your email ID is listed in our mailing list. 

Let's see what we have for you today,

From myMIBB's Desk - I am Back :)

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How have you all been?

It has been a while since I last wrote. From the record, the last bulletin were sent on March 2014; about 1.5 years ago!

Those whom had been with us for long time would have known that through this bulletin we had published many incidences where some of our friends were having tough time. 

God has been fair and I was not spared too. Went through my own share of turbulance. 

I needed to be "disconnected" and focus on myself and family. 

At times I get many urgent emails which some of them involving life or death matters e.g medical. As those issues were in more priority I had the tendency to drop attending my own matters. While working on one urgent email, another one comes in, then another one and another. Realised these does not stop and my own issues get accumulated and get more aggreviated. Hence has to take an unannounced leave.

It has taken some time to sort my issues. Glad to say all are in order now and we are back in action. Thank you very much for all your emails checking if I was ok. Appreciate your concern. If you are still expecting a reply from me kindly resend your email. It will take ages for me if I were to go back to the 1.5 years archive.

Let's continue to shine!

From myMIBB's Desk - Our Story (Just to recap)

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Our Bulletin Board has been in operation for more than 8 years then taken 1.5 years break. It has been a long marathon run, close to 700 bulletins has been published till date. Since its inception we have promoted our Bulletin Board as an "information disseminating tool", where when we paste information on this board, we hope the members will come forward to read it. As we moved on, we introduced the concept of "pooling resources". In those days, usually I am the only one who work to excavate useful information. Not anymore, via pooling resources our members in MyMIBB to come forward to share useful information around them where the have nots could benefit from it. We got very good response. We later included and promoted the "self-help model" in our Bulletin Board. In this model we encouraged the members to take action using the information provided in the bulletin to improve themselves. This basically targets the have nots. 

As time goes by, we included and promoted another important component, that is "active citizenship". This time we target the haves to come forward to offer their expertise and resources to assist and guide the have nots. The outcome of this also has been very satisfying. The last couple of years I included and promoted another pertinent component -- "community driven initiative". It evolves from "active citizenship", where we give room for all to be involved in planning, fund raising and executing projects of their interest for the development of our community. Via this model, we will have the opportunity to identity and nurture many more leaders. We have ample of room for all to be involved. One single person can do only much, but via this model we could have multiplicative effect. Our community could benefit the most from it as they will have more activities to participate and improve themselves now. 

Just to recap,

Information Disseminating Tool -> Pooling Resources -> Self-Help Model -> Active Citizenship -> Community Driven Initiative

Our growth was pretty much organic and am extremely happy to see the fruits of my experiments. Since the last 12 months we, via the members of our Bulletin Board have touched the lives of more than 3000 people that needed our help. We also via the members of our Bulletin Board have organized more than 100 beneficial projects for our community whether it was on small or very big scale since the inception of our Bulletin Board. Not all the activities were published on the Bulletin Board as we could solve quite a number of it on the background. We have not compromised our ethics and quality along the way in getting our work done.

Hope you have a good stay with us in the mailing list and participate in some of our activities that interest you. If you are keen to organize an activity within the scope of our effort don't hesitate to email me at svan...@gmail.com

Thank you very much.

Saravanan Kandasamy

My Malaysian Indian's Bulletin Board (myMIBB)

Charity -  Mr. Tanimalai, Penang - A Successful Activity - Report 

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Tanimalai is 83 years old single man without family. He sacrificed many years to take care of his sick mother which resulted him not getting married. After his mother passed away he continues living as single person. He used to do many kind of odd jobs and as the age catching up he finally ends up work as scrap collector to continue his remnants of his life. He cycled everyday to many corners of the residential area to look for material that can be salvaged and sell, the toughest part is to cross the heavy traffic road in order to reach the recycling centre. Even though his health (eyesight and hearing) deteriorated so much but his principle of being independent never moved an inch. Currently he is earning around RM 5 to RM 10 whenever his energy allowed him to cycle.

Kalidas Muniandy, Mogan Sinniah, Sangaran Narayanan and many other kind hearted people have teamed to assist Tanimalai. Their proposal to place him in welfare home was politely rejected by Tanimalai on the basis he do not wants to burden anyone and on top of this he is highly attached sentimentally to the existing house and land which claimed to be his even though it cannot be verified at the point of visit. The so called house is full of unwanted things and the surroundings with thick wild grass pose hidden danger to Tanimalai. Apart from this, no electricity or tap water sighted in the house and clean water channeled by the neighbor via hose.

Tanimalai shared with the team that he used to be good footballer during his young age and even with poor eyesight he able to show his handsome photo in football suit. Currently Tanimalai is not receiving any financial aid such as from welfare or other source and he is willing to survive with his earnings. No important document such as IC sighted during the visit and noted only a photostat copy of temporary identification document issued by Registry Department

The team identified the below plan for Tanimalai

Short Term/Immediate Plan

- Gotong royong to clear all the unwanted things and clear the wild grass surrounding the house. Can be done either with assitance of a) volunteers of at least 10 people; b) hire foreigners/local; or c) engage local council (MPSP) for this task.

- Provide basic household utensil as the existing one is in extremely bad condition and unhygienic.

- Bring Tanimalai to nearest government clinic for medical check to confirm his health condition.

- Provide clothing’s, mattress and pillow

- Confirm the electricity connection

Long Term Plan

- Apply IC using the temporary registration document.

- Register with Welfare department for monthly contribution and initiate BRIM application

- Engage counselor to convince Tanimalai on the option of staying in Welfare home

Mogan estimated would need RM1570 to execute the immediate plan. With the assistance of many kind hearted donor, RM2820 was managed to be collected exceeding the need target. 20 volunteers have came forward for the gotong royong.

On 25 October 2015 the gotong royong was carried out. A team led by Dr.Vinayagamoorthy came all the way from Kedah to assist with the relevant cleaning equiptments. The below is the field report from Mogan.

-------Field Report - Mogan ------

As plan we have completed the 'gotong royong' at Mr. Tanimalai house. We started our journey from the meeting point around 10.50am and reached Mr. Tanimalai house around 11am but unfortunately Mr. Tanimalai not at his house and as usual he went peddling around the residential area looking for item that can be salvaged. However the excited volunteers started their 'seva' around the house. Around 11.30am our hero Mr. Tanimalai was seen cycling slowly towards his house with his usual basket at the back of his bicycle. It was quite shocking moment for Mr. Tanimalai to see many unknown person around his house and at the beginning we had some difficulties to convince and get the trust from him to convey the objective of our mission and after much persuasion everything went smooth.

The noble souls by the name of volunteers are simply awesome, no words to describe their contribution today it was superb planning, teamwork and delegation in order to get the job done. Sincere thanks to Mr. Sangaran and team, Mr. Kalidass and team, Dr.Vinayagamoorthy's wife and two of his children and couple with Happy Feet project volunteers, the humble Mr. Charles, Mr. Dhina, Mr. Mathavan and his children and friend, Mr. Devan the wonderful neighbor for Mr. Tanimalalai, Mr. Ramesh and his father, Mr. Bala.

It was happy moment to Mr. Tanimalai when fluorescent tube bulb start shining after years of darkness in his house and he cannot stop smiling when Mr. Kalidass put on clothes brought by Dr. Vinayagamoothy's wife.

To all the donors once again thank you very much.

Expenses as to date: 1. Single bed, mattress, pillow, plate racks : RM 353.00, 2. Relaxing chair : RM 210, household utensils : RM 102.90, plastic dining table : RM 69, vacuum flask : RM 28.90, 100 plus drinks for volunteers : RM 16.20.

Total : RM 779.00

------- End Field Report ------

An excellent work by all in the team. Some contributed monetarily and some has contributed their energy, with everyone's effort they have managed to make a positive change in Tanimalai life. Am sure Tanimalai will be having a "brighter" Deepavali this year.

Proposal -  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jub5xc0cp0xa6y6/tanimalai.pdf

Photos and Receipts - https://picasaweb.google.com/106973734301484503108/Tanimalai

Ok that's all from me.

Let's Shine.

rgds

Saravanan Kandasamy

myMIBB