SEVERAL teenagers in Selangor started a charity drive by selling home-made cookies, hand-made soap, earrings and keychains to help underprivileged pupils during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Within two months, they raised RM14,200 – an amount sufficient to buy five laptops for orphans at Home of Peace, to ease their access to online schooling.

Arielle Wang Xue Ern, 14, Tianna Avis Rajendra, 15, and Jessica Ong Suet Ling, 16, are friends who participated in the Revolution Movement, which galvanises youth to love their neighbourhoods.

Wang, who coordinates the orders and deliveries, said the idea started after a movement leader nudged the teenagers about the struggle faced by orphans with malfunctioning devices.

Coping with the new norm herself, Wang said the project taught her to be selfless and kind.  

“I needed to spend a significant amount of time helping with the tasks, answering many text messages or calls on addresses for delivery.

“I found it more stressful because there were other tasks I needed to complete, but I began to focus more on the higher purpose of blessing the orphans.”

For Tianna, the project gave her the opportunity to follow in her mother’s footsteps.

“Since I was little, my mother has always been helping the underprivileged. Sometimes she would bring me along to visit them.

“So, when we were given a chance to handle a big project, I knew I wanted to focus on helping the less fortunate,” she said.

Tianna is the team’s artist, crafting all the earring and keychain orders with her hands. She kicked off the project selling 110 hand-made crafts.

“At first, I made earrings and posted them on my social media. After that, we knew we needed another way to make money, and cookies were our pick.

“Our friends sent messages to almost everyone they knew – relatives, parents, friends, transporters, and neighbours. It definitely worked because, in the end, we sold 430 bottles of cookies.

“After getting pre-orders, we would go to Jessica’s house and bake for about eight hours a day, making 1,000 cookies each day. It was very tiring as we were baking back-to-back.”

They also acknowledged the help of other teenagers who occasionally offered a hand and different movement leaders who helped make deliveries.

Initially, the goal was to raise RM10,000. The teenagers started the project on October 1 and exceeded the amount sooner than expected on November 23.

“It was a relief to know we met our goal and we did not have to work anymore. But it would not be so bad to do it again.

“It was also a fun experience and great bonding time with teammates. I guess we can now look for new goals and ways to reach out to our neighbourhoods,” Ong said.

Justine Morais, founder of Home of Peace, said news of the new laptops are an unexpected blessing.

“We are very grateful for them. Now, the pupils do not need to wait to finish their school work. And it will be a continuous usage for the following batch of pupils,” she said. – November 28, 2020.