the Other neighbourhood

Only with a pair of parang (a Malayan machete) in his hand, he begins to sleep.

Keyword: ‘begins’.

Never can he ever sleep without the fear of being robbed, assaulted or captured. The slightest of sound would cause an alarm, triggering an immediate mode of defence. While we struggle from the inability to fall asleep, the concept of security is unfathomable to them.

“Ini bukan satu atau dua keping…ini BAJU!”

With profuse exuberance, a lady who has just been handed a simple, pre-loved tee, exclaims in joy. The genuine appreciation for the function of clothes manifests from her reaction.

There’s no need for Supreme, Armani, or Abercrombie and Fitch to fulfil her desire for comfort. It struck me how much impact an upgrade from self-stitched apparels (from pieces of clothes), to owning a conventional accepted definition of a ‘shirt’ can do to a fine human being.

This fits perfectly into the rags to riches narrative. Riches here, being a functional t-shirt.

She was raped. Trice. All while she was mentally unsound. Three undernourished babies born.

She was ignorant of the scant existence of mental health aid and was desperately in need of psychological assistance and advice. Without receiving any, her mind snapped and she left her toxic, abusive home. On the streets, she was physically free, but her mind wasn’t.

Turned into what one would heedlessly label as a ‘mad woman’, she was drugged and raped by God-knows-who.

Few weeks after her discovery, Kechara volunteers who had been providing her with food, never heard from her again.

“Well its too bad that they fell into the victim category of the lottery of birth. It’s the sad reality called the inequality of fate dude.” -Anonymous

There is another general perception that homelessness is self inflicted, rooted in complacency or laziness. Prejudices like these create the branding that the homeless are unmotivated individuals and burdens to society.

Lacking the privilege of education and care, these group are easily subjected to the cycle of poverty and severe suffering. Many of the homeless in fact do seek to get themselves jobs, but due to past records of drug usage and arguably unfair perception of their identity, chances are slim. It doesn’t help that even if they do miraculously obtain one, their earnings fall below minimum wage.

There are welfare and reintegration homes in town, but it doesn’t appeal to them due to various reasonable reasons. Indeed, more funding need to be directed to those homes for the enhancement of quality, working towards attracting the favour of the homeless. However, these efforts would be in vain without the support and attention of the public towards this friendly community.

The experience of distributing food to the homeless is invaluable. Nothing beats knowledge but experience.

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