A 4 year-old child and her three siblings suriviving on biscuits as their meals

Four siblings surviving on biscuits

IPOH: Four-year-old “Annie” (not her real name) has never eaten a grain of rice in her life as her unemployed father could not provide for her and her three siblings.

Staying in an abandoned workshop with their father, the malnourished children had only eaten biscuits to stave off hunger.

State executive council member Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said the children’s 32-year-old father became jobless after the workshop closed down three months ago.
Concern: Mah (right) and Tan chatting with the children at their home, an abandoned workshop, in Ipoh Thursday.


Concern: Mah (right) and Tan chatting with the children at their home, an abandoned workshop, in Ipoh Thursday.

“Before working in the workshop as a steel cutter, the man used to work in Kuala Lumpur,” he said when visiting the family at the workshop yesterday.

“He had borrowed money from loan sharks in 2005 to start a business but it failed.”

Dr Mah said the man was still hiding from Ah Long.

“He and his family returned to Ipoh in 2007,” he said, adding that the children’s mother ran away shortly after they moved back.

Dr Mah, who is Perak MCA Youth chief, said the father was unable to find work as he had to look after his family.

He noted that Annie and her three siblings, aged eight, nine and 10, were not enrolled into any primary school as they did not have birth certificates.

“The father only taught them basic Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia at home,” he said.

Dr Mah said he would discuss with the Perak MCA Public Service and Complaints Bureau to set up a fund to help the family.

Bercham Rukun Tetangga chairman Tan Swee Kong, who got to know about their plight recently, has located a new home for them.

Perak Welfare Department director Chong Phaik Kee said the department would help the children get their birth certificates.

”We will help them get medical attention and enrol them in schools,” said Chong.

”We will also try to help the father secure a job so that he can take care of his family,” she added.