KUALA LUMPUR – Less fortunate children who have found a home in the Raudhatul Nurr Jannah welfare centre are set to welcome Hari Raya in a more festive manner compared to the last couple of years, thanks to the hard work put in by caretaker Zurina Zainudin.
Speaking to The Vibes, Zurina, 46, said that while the Covid-19 pandemic had dealt quite a blow to the home and its operations, she is intent on providing the best for the 55 kids under her care, with this year’s Raya being an opportune moment for the children to indulge in celebrations.
When the pandemic was at its peak, donations in the form of goods and monetary assistance had dwindled but we still had to pay the rental and utility charges at our centre,” she lamented, noting that her event planning business had not been spared from the economic downturn.
Besides that, the pandemic also saw the separation of children from their families who could not afford to visit them over the past two years, Zurina said.
But Zurina’s tenacity and refusal to give up on her charges helped the centre, established in 2014, to stay afloat and things are slowly returning to normal for the mixture of orphans and underprivileged kids, aged from four to 20-years-old.
With the easing of travel and other restrictions this year, many of the children – who have stayed at the home based in Taman Gombak Ria since 2018 – are heading back to spend Aidilfitri with their families.
Sixteen of the children will remain behind, and it is for these children that Zurina and her husband, Muhd Derek Gomes, 60, are planning a small open house.
Zurina said the open house was an annual affair at the home before the pandemic struck, and this year they will keep it small to make sure the children remain safe from Covid-19.
The children might have fun at big events, but there will be major consequences to deal with if I do not ensure that crowds are controlled,” she said.
She added that she applies the same principle to other programmes as well by making the children undergo Covid-19 self-tests before any planned activities, especially those involving children and participants from outside the centre.
Since Raudhatul Nurr Jannah houses children with various cultural beliefs, Zurina strives to provide equal treatment to the children by fostering an inclusive environment where every child, regardless of their religious background, can partake in celebrations.
“We’ve brought all of them to buy new clothes for Raya and non-Muslim kids are also given a portion of the food that we hand out during Ramadan,” she said, adding that similar procedures are carried out during Christmas and other celebrations, reflecting the childrens’ diverse faiths.
The centre is part of a bigger association called RNJ Humanitarian – also managed by Zurina and a few other volunteers – which plans and carries out humanitarian aid for the poor and needy, including victims of the recent floods.
The older children in the centre are often brought along on missions to help flood victims, as Zurina said that she wants to inculcate in them the habit of helping others, while also experiencing how it is to clean up homes damaged by floods.
Besides being a welfare centre providing disadvantaged youths with a roof over their heads and the necessary basic needs, she stressed that the home aims to nurture the minds of the children by encouraging their interests.
“It’s not a problem if they are not academically inclined, our goal is simply to produce productive individuals who can give back to others, and we do this by motivating them to think positively about their abilities,” she said. – The Vibes, May 1, 2022
