KUCHING – Nearly 5,000 recipients of welfare assistance, under various programmes organised by the Social Welfare Department (SWD), had successfully been lifted from poverty last year, said Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
She said the number is from a total of 533,167 aid recipients involving an allocation of RM2.4 billion.
“Although there are not many in terms of the number, 4,921 people, at least they managed to get out of the group that received the aid. So we helped them to be independent,” she said after attending Program Kasih Ramadan, organised by The National Welfare Foundation (NWF), here today.
Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, Nancy said about 1,500 aid recipients who participated in the Two Years Exit Programme (2YEP), under the SWD, have successfully exited from welfare assistance since the programme was held in 2016.
At the same time, she said her ministry had channelled an additional allocation of RM10 million to RM2.41 billion for the purpose of welfare programmes this year, compared to RM2.4 billion last year.
“We have an allocation of RM2.4 billion for welfare alone last year but this year it was increased to RM2.41 (billion) because the number of welfare aid recipients has increased. The target group involving the asnaf group is the highest number of recipients,” she said.
Earlier, Nancy, who is also NWF chairman and Santubong MP, distributed food baskets to 100 villagers comprising the asnaf group from Kg Beradek, Kg Semilang, and Kg Tiang Api. – Bernama, April 1, 2023
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