HARI Raya is only two days away. On Jalan Chow Kit, city folk are swarming the Ramadan bazaar there as they make their final festive preparations.
Chow Kit is known as the market centre of Kuala Lumpur, boasting a daily wet market and night market alongside its many businesses operating along the main thoroughfare.
People from all parts of the country, including Sabah and Sarawak, come to Kuala Lumpur in search of job opportunities.
They come to Chow Kit to start a new journey – some enjoy happy endings but for some, luck is not on their side.
Especially for mothers living in a small room or broken houses in Chow Kit. The rental rate for a room in Chow Kit is about RM480 to RM500 per month, which leaves them with little choice.
Some are mothers with small children dumped by their husbands and some live with their husbands who earn only RM1,100 a month, so they can’t afford to buy or rent a house.
Baitulmal also provides them monthly aid of about RM300. Living in a big city like Kuala Lumpur with only RM700 to RM800 after paying rental is hard.
This photo essay is about mothers who are trying their best to crawl out of poverty in Chow Kit.
Whether they are single parents or husbands with low income, all are struggling, worrying about the next meal.
Aid from civil society groups in the form of food, milk powder, nappies and personal care items lifts a little burden.
For this Hari Raya, many groups and companies have brought food and new clothes for their children. Some families haven’t celebrated Hari Raya with their family in their kampung for nearly seven years. On the festive day, they will stay in their rooms in Chow Kit or just meet their friends on the street.
Then, there are the mothers who end up living in the street… – June 3, 2019.
A stall selling decorative lights for the festive season in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Mothers and their children enjoying food and a birthday celebration provided by a civil society group in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Siti Mizahida Misnan, 32, is from Kulai, Johor. Siti hanging the laundry in a room she rents for about RM500 per month. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Siti Mizahida Misnan with her daughter. She has six children and two of them live with her aunt in Johor. The room measures about 15m x 15m. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Siti Mizahida Misnan playing with her daughter while waiting for her husband to return from work. Her husband work as a security guard in a shopping complex in Kuala Lumpur. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Shahiza Nur Ahmad, 24, is a Rohingya. She was born in Sg Petani, Kedah. Her husband is a Malaysian. The husband was cheated by a relative in a business deal a few years ago. Now she works as homestay cleaner with her husband. They rent a room in Chow Kit for about RM500 a month. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Shahiza Nur Ahmad cleaning a homestay in Kuala Lumpur with her husband. They are paid RM20 per person for each homestay they clean. They earn about RM1,000 to RM,1300 a month and Shahiza works hard to bring her family out of the poverty line. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Analina Mansor, 28, is from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. She came to Kuala Lumpur to look for a job to help her family in Sabah. She has two children while the husband works as a construction worker and is paid RM40 per day. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Ananalina putting her child to sleep after feeding him. Her husband is only home twice a month as he works in a construction site outside Kuala Lumpur. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Analina has to share a kitchen and toilet with other tenants. Most of the tenants are foreign workers from Myanmar and Bangladesh. She is not afraid of her neighbours whom she considers as ‘good’ people. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Halimatun Saadiah, 30, is a mother of four from Kuala Lumpur. She rents a room in a wooden house in Kg Baru not far from Chow Kit. Her husband works as a shop assistant in Chow Kit and earns about RM1,150 a month. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Halimatun Saadiah with her children in their room. She receives RM200 a month from Baitulmal. The family rent the room for about RM500 per month. She tries to help her husband by selling food but had to stop to take care of their children. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Halimatun Saadiah watching her children trying out their new clothes for Hari Raya provided by civil society groups. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.Halimatun Saadiah’s children with their new Hari Raya clothes outside their room in Kg Baru, not far from Chow Kit. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 3, 2019.
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