KUALA LUMPUR – The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry (KPWKM) is working with the Health Ministry (MoH) to identify children who have lost their parents to Covid-19.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun, said the KPWKM also works with community leaders and residents’ associations to ensure that the children are looked after.
“This is one of the initiatives under the ministry… during the pandemic, we read and we saw that many children lost their parents due to Covid-19,” she said, adding that the children needed the strength to move on with their lives.
Earlier today, Rina visited a single mother of eight children, Yusmah Yusof, 44, in Desa Pandan here, whose husband died of Covid-19.
Yusmah received assistance, such as monthly financial aid, to cover expenses for her eight children aged between 9 and 20 years old, food basket assistance under the Bakul Prihatin Negara initiative, RM300 cash, a care package from Yayasan Kebajikan Negara, gadgets to facilitate her children’s e-learning as well as counselling services from the ministry.
Meanwhile, Rina said the ministry received 371,082 applications for the Bakul Prihatin Negara assistance, and that more than 50,000 baskets have been distributed to 172,239 households.
She said RM154,631,275 under the Welfare Department’s Child Financial Assistance has been distributed in the first six months of this year, compared with last year’s total allocation for the aid, which stands at RM192,662,892. – Bernama, August 3, 2021
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