FOR children living in a cramped 60sq m public housing flat with their families, a table to do their homework or a quiet spot to read is a rare luxury. Space to call their own, where they can play in safety and display their artwork with pride, is almost unheard of.

Kidzone Mentari has changed for the kids of Desa Mentari in Petaling Jaya. Located on the 8th floor of Desa Mentari Block 5, Kidzone Mentari operates in an unit taken up by non-governmental organisation Suriana Welfare Society for Children. The project is a collaboration with residents to turn the flat into an activity centre for children to use from 10am to 8pm daily except Sunday.

The availability of a safe space where children can be guided in tuition or counselled by adults over social problems prevalent in people’s housing projects (PPR) is also a comfort to the adult residents of the  flats in PJS6, off the Federal Highway.

The children’s parents are mainly wage earners with a household income often not exceeding RM4,000, who work long hours and are either unable to provide after-school care for their children or a conducive study environment at home. 

“Most mothers are housewives but the children find it easier to come  and do their schoolwork here because they have many siblings at home, “ Block 5 resident and Kidzone volunteer Kamsiah Mohammed told The Malaysian Insight.

Around 250 children are registered with the centre, where they can make art, read from the collection of books,  play board games, carom and congkak, and study under guidance. An adult volunteer is always on duty to help with homework or counsel troubled children.

As such, even when there is no homework to do, the children will come to the centre, where their artwork decorate the walls, to hang out with their friends.

“They can just come to play as long as there is someone to monitor them. And if the parents are not able to pick them up later, we will have someone send them home,” said P. Palaniandy, who works full-time at the centre.

The 60-year-old retiree said children from other blocks in the Desa Mentari cluster of low-cost flats, home to about 10,000 residents, also come to the centre, which has had to turn down registrations due to lack of capacity.

It is popular with parents in the flats community as it prevents their children from wandering around the neighbourhood without supervision, said Kamsiah, who is also a committee member of the Block 5 residents’ group.

“We also have kids who don’t go to school because they are stateless; their parents are Indonesians.

“For schoolgoing children, they will come here after school or before going to school for those in the afternoon session,” she said.

Space for a safe childhood

Kidzone Mentari opened November 2016 after NGO Suriana identified the low-cost housing community for its safe space for children project.

The NGO had approached Block 5 residents’ group chairman Mohd Zaini Salleh, who gave his full support. The programme received good feedback from parents and became so successful that residents of nearby flats also wanted to send their children there.

“We could not accept them because we do not have the capacity to accommodate more. There is also a lack of volunteers and funding,” said Zaini.

Suriana executive director Scott Wong said it cost RM8,000 a month to run the activity centre, covering payment to volunteer teachers and staff, rental, maintenance and upkeep and material and equipment for music lessons, art, games and tuition.

The NGO hopes to open five more centres at other low-cost flats, he said.

The centre has achieved several things simply by providing the children a safe space and an adult to be with them. Not only can children, whose parents wouldn’t be able to afford tuition classes for them, receive guidance for school work, but those with troubled behaviour or who may be suffering abuse can be identified and helped.

“In an urban poor community there are problems like gangsterism, drug addiction where kids can be easily influenced.

“Our teachers are trained in looking out for behavioural issues and physical signs of abuse, so when we do art therapy like drawing, we will look for such signs,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

Volunteer Thanaletchumy Alagiriasamy, said she once counselled a 12-year-old girl who had been beaten up by a gang of girl bullies at the flats.

The 50-year-old kindergarten teacher said children in these communities needed a “different kind of approach” to help them open up.

“The majority of them do have problems. Either at home with their parents, their siblings or children their age,” said Thanaletchumy who arrives at Kidzone at 3pm almost daily to oversee the children.

She said the case of the young victim of bullying showed her the reality of the community and what could happen if the children did not have a safe and healthy avenue to channel their energy.

“There are girls ‘in charge’ of the area and they beat up this girl. Yes, you are surprised that this kind of thing happens.

“I spoke to the girls in the gang. They are smart and they know to behave very well when they are (confronted).”

Thanaletchumy also said she came across children who often released their anger on other children. By talking to them more, she found out that the children felt their parents were very controlling at home and did not give them the space to play.

Welcome support for low-income parents

Residents like Umadevi Veloo, 44, depend on the centre to provide guidance for her schoolgoing children aged 8 and 10.

The mother of five is not working as she has to care for her cancer-stricken husband.

“He needs an operation but we don’t have the money. He still does odd jobs around the flat when he feels strong and that earns us around RM30 to RM40. We also receive RM250 from the Welfare Department but it is not enough,” she told The Malaysian Insight when met at Kidzone.

Rent is two months overdue and so are the school bus fees for her three kids. Neighbours help the family with some food and minor expenses.

But at least her children have a place to go to study and get help with their lessons for  free.

“They could not speak Malay or English in the beginning but they are better now,” she said.

For the children of Solehah, a 36-year-old Indonesian, Kidzone is the only education her two children Agus, 9 and Puteri, 10, receive. The children were born here and have birth certificates but are not Malaysians as both their parents are migrants.

“They can’t enrol into a normal school. Here at least they can learn the basics of reading and writing,” said Solehah.

Another flat dweller, Maizatul Akma Samsudin, 37, sends two of her kids aged seven and 10 to the centre whenever they are free and on school holidays because she does not want them roaming outside, even if it is just the nearby playground, on their own .“Knowing the social ills around these flats, I dare not to let them go out without adult supervision,” she said. – January 21, 2018.