CHILDREN who have lost their parents or guardians to Covid-19 are now able to get emotional, financial and legal support from a special team formed by volunteer groups.

The Child Crisis Support Team (CCST) was mobilised in July with a careline to identify such children, said its founder PH Wong.

It currently manages 12 such cases and also provides assistance to wives who have lost their husbands to the coronavirus.

“Assistance is not limited to financial aid but legal and emotional support as well,” said the director of the Childline Malaysia Project.

Wong told The Malaysian Insight CCST also provides support for children left alone at home because their parents are in quarantine.

“Some children are at home alone while some have had to follow their parents to the hospital or quarantine centre even though they are not Covid-19 positive.

“You can’t expect a doctor or health officer to help as they are themselves burdened with their work.

“For children at home we will see if they have neighbours or relatives so that we will know what kind of assistance they need,” she said, adding the team will also send food to the children.

Data from the Education Ministry showed that as of August, 4,422 children had lost their parents or guardians to the pandemic.

The government has set aside RM25 million for the welfare and education of these children via Yayasan Keluarga Malaysia.

Commenting on the effort, Wong said the ministry’s revelation was a relief because they had been working without knowing the exact data on the matter.

In fact, they also previously found it difficult to identify the children due to lack of data.

“Previously, it was difficult for us to find these children because the hospital ethically cannot disclose information.

“Employees of the Social Welfare Department are burdened with their work.

“That’s why we came up with a hotline so it makes it easier for us to identify children who need help,” she said.

Widow support

Wong said the CCST not only focused on orphans but also provided support and assistance to Covid-19 widows and single mothers.

She said it was important for the group to be given emotional support so that they do not sink into depression or contemplate suicide.

At the same time, she also hoped for cooperation from the government to allow the appointment of civil society groups as child protection assistants.

She said currently only child protectors appointed by the Welfare Department (JKM) were allowed to manage local protection for the group.

“For us, this is a long-term solution that the government should do. Because the existing protection officers cannot catch up with their duties. They have too many cases.

“And they also need to focus on the cases of neglect and abuse which have also increased since the pandemic.

“So we propose to the government for protective assistants for each district, they can take cases that are not very serious,” Wong said.

The coronavirus has killed 29,600 people in Malaysia. – November 16, 2021.