jom makan
street feeding
2016
organized by ais
Mss and Salaam Mission
Homelessness is one of the world wide issue that happen in most of the country especially third country like our country. The structural causes of homelessness might include a lack of affordable housing; high levels of poverty, and unemployment. One of way to understand someone’s condition is to put yourself into someone’s shoe and that’s the reason why I’ve participated “Jom Makan” Street feeding 2016. Not all in KL fortunate to have a roof above their head and have at least meal per day. There are some in KL who need as much as we can give and more. As a student, we won’t be able to provide them shelter but we can share our love by giving them free food and lending them a wiling ear to listen to them and their stories.
“Jom Makan” Street Feeding was organized by AIS with collaboration with MSS (Muslim Student Society) and Salaam Mission (NGO).This event was held in KL city area where most of the homeless gather, including Masjid Negara, Masijd Jamek, Central Market, Chinatown and Segi KL. I have heard about street feeding like Street Feeder of Kl and Kechara Soup Kitchen but have never thought of participating this kind of voluntary event. It was definitely a new experience for me as it’s a class event for our semester as well.
The event start around 9pm when the food is finally arrived due to some reason. Anyway, briefing was given by experienced participant, Shi Song before we start our activity. As one of the organizing committee I felt so happy because the number of participant is more than what I have expected especially participants from Semester 1 and 2, they are so active in participating this voluntary event, thumbs up!
Our assigned route for that night was Masjid Jamek. As a group of 20, each of us has help to carry food, water, clothes and toiletry along the way. We have a great team spirit as we always stop and headcount to prevent unwanted things happen. While walking along the way, there are some homeless started to approach us and as for food and drink. We reach our first stop in 5 minutes, where there’s more than ten homeless at that area. Out of my expectation, their living condition and attire is better than what we have seen from television. At least they’re hygienic, dressed and living at not-so-dirty space. Some of them event speak English. After delivering food and drinks for them, we try to approach and talk to them. Talking to homeless would be a challenge for me but I have tried to do so. Some of them are not-talkative but some of them are friendly to chat. Well, approaching homeless and talk to them is one of the way to show our concern and care to this group of society that we have left out.
To help these homeless, there are a few designer has contribute their effort to improve their current living condition. In Marseille, France, Stéphane malka of malka architecture has constructed a series of vertical stealth shelters existing in legal ambiguity across the façade of a railway viaduct. For homeless, they need shelter and that’s why they always sleep at five-foot walkway, under the bridge and park. In order to solve this problem, Stéphane has design a tent that serve as a private space for them to sit and rest. By using a blank vertical expanse of wall, they installed 23 small tent pods. The pods are “parasitic” structures’ and doesn’t need more space. It utilizes the mobile and lightweight characteristics of a pop-up tent. They hope, however, that their efforts will lead to increased awareness of the homeless problem and encourage people to get involved in the cause.
This is the second community event that I have joined so far. Compare to Epic Home which helping Orang Asli, this street feeding is less satisfied because of a few reasons. The homeless actually very used to this voluntary event as there’s more group that carry out street feeding in KL. Some of them has become so greedy not all but some. There’s hard to find sincere gratitude from them as they get free food. But apart from these negatives feedback, it’s still a very meaningful voluntary event that give me a chance to understand the homeless. Thanks Yujing for organizing this event and Ms Sue for encouraging us to participate. It was a productive night even though we’re rushing for assignments before and after this event.
