Dear friends,
 
UMIC’s "Back to School" project is back again for the year 2009. This is our 4TH YEAR and we thank the members for the support and understanding. It is beyond dispute that without support from forum members, and caring community, we could have not envisioned the success of this program thus far. Early this year we successfully concluded the
project, whereby we sponsored 92 students (a big jump from 59 in 2007) from SJKT Bkt Darah, SJKT Ldg Sg Buloh, SJKT Ldg Bradwall, and also the children of our single mothers program, who had difficulties in meeting the school expenses due to their unfortunate poor conditions. Photos of previous Back To School events can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/umic.photos/BackToSchool2008SJKTBukitDarah and http://umic.shutterfly.com.  Beyond just providing uniforms and school bags, we also helped to cover expenses for extra classes and school activities at both these schools.
 
For the record, below is the number of recipients since the ineption of Back To School program:
2008: 92 students from SJKT Bkt Darah, SJKT Ldg Sg
Buloh, and SJKT Ldg Bradwall
2007: 59 students from SJKT Bkt Darah and SJKT Ldg Sungai Buloh
2006: 35 students from SJKT Bkt Darah.
 
Due to the support by the public via UMIC, the teachers, and also the effort by students and parents, we are able to announce SJKT Ldg Sungai Buloh’s passing increased from 11.7% in 2007 to 50% in 2008, but unfortunately no repeat of the 7As students. For SJKT Bukit Darah, the overall passing rate increased from 44.1% to 60%.
Slowly, we can see the students results improving due to the commitment of the teachers and school, added with financial support from the community.

In the near future, our target is to achieve 100% passing rate. Again, all this is only possible due to the overwhelming, continuous support and commitment shown by people from all walks of life, who contribute through us. The funds were used to cover the lunch expenses during weekend classes, purchase of study materials, payment of fees for student participation in events, etc.
 

Over the last 2 years, we have increasingly helped more students, and the trend continues this year. This year, we have identified about 56 poor students from SJKT Bukit Darah in Sg Buloh  and SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh in Bkt Rotan These students are facing difficulties to step foot into school again due to their unfortunate family backgrounds of single mothers, labourers, phyisically/mentally disabled parents, medically affected parents, etc.

The parents can’t afford to provide these young souls the education and the study materials which will provide them a better future and to contribute to the community growth. This project is in line with our focus and objective to assist poor students to continue to excel their education and to kill off the young age school dropout rates.
 
The breakdown and total cost are as below:
1. SJKT Bkt. Darah, Sg Buloh – 27
2. SJKT Ladang Sg Buloh, Bkt Rotan – 29
3. SJKT Ldg Bradwall, Siliau – Not received names yet.
Total – 56 students (Expected to increase)
Estimated total expenses – RM 9,040 (minimum)
 
The amount may look big, but when our community puts its mind to it, we can achieve the target. Imagine that we received a total of RM11,400 in 2008! Once again, this is a mere inkling of the capability, support, and community-consciousness of the readers.

 
The students list is will be update by early next week on our website at  www.umic.org.my. Those without access to website may request the list from the contact persons below. Similar to last year, interested donors can adopt one or more students from the student list which has been published by UMIC Charity Wing . The approximate cost per student based on age will be as below:
1. Std 1 – RM140
2. Std 2 – RM140
3. Std 3 – RM160
4. Std 4 – RM160
5. Std 5 – RM180
6. Std 6 – RM180
7. Secondary – RM200

The cost per student above includes the basic needs (2 pairs of uniform, school bag, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of socks, shoe polish, water bottle, exercise books, & stationeries) AND also to cover for motivation seminar, education seminar, extra classes, and purchase of workbooks. We invite interested donors to contact the following committee members below for more info and pledge:
 
 
Koppal 019-2796669 / koppalai@epsontoyocom.com
Poobalan 019-2664042 / mpoobalan@gmail.com
Muru 012-3072027 / murudevi@yahoo.com
Rajj 016-2200765 / l0rd_huntsman@yahoo.com
 
Account details are as below:

Name: UNITED MALAYSIAN INDIAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CLUB (UMIC)
ROS No:0867-08-SEL
Bank: RHB
Branch: IOI Mall, Puchong
Acc no: 2-12125-0011434-0
 
Upon banking-in, kindly SMS your name and amount to any of the above numbers.
 
 
Pls visit http:///www.umic.org.my and http://www.umic.com.my for more details of the club and the projects/events (we are still updating the website, so do bear with us). Again, we look forward for your support. More info will be posted as it is made available. Please forward this to your friends and family members.
 
Thank you.

Date: 13 Dec 2008

Time: 12.00 – 2.00pm

Number of children: 48

Address: No. 45, Jalan 20/2, Paramount Garden,46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Website: http://www.rumahhope.org/index.html

In making this event a success, we are pleading to you, our members and readers to contribute what you can to the Home. We are planning to get them:

Provision:

1. Sardine 425g – RM 3.59
2. Cooking Oil 5kg – RM 12.89
3. Milo Refill Pack 2kg – RM 25.45
4. Local Rice (5%) 10kg – RM 25.50
5. Coarse Sugar 2kg – RM 2.75
6. Full Cream Milk 2kg – RM 41.90

Gifts:

1. Age 8-12   : Colouring set
2. Age 13-15 : Stationary Set
3. Age 16-18 : Stationary Set ( a different one to suit their higher secondary needs )

The sets are estimated to be around RM7/child, which roughly come up to RM340.

These are just some ideas that occurred to us while brainstorming about it. I am sure everyone here could come up with their own ideas or some maybe generous enough to part with old books or used clothes which are still in good condition.

Besides, we also would appreciate if you could sacrifice your Saturday afternoon to be with these kids.

You may choose to leave a comment with your details and things you may be able to sponsor, or else e-mail us (amutha [at] mindsblog.com / npuvanan [at] gmail.com / nkavilan [at] yahoo.com) for further details.

Let’s join hands to make this event a success.

RSVP via Facebook

UMIC’s 3rd Treasure Hunt will be held on 16th November 2008 and this time it will be a day hunt around Klang Valley (about 50km radius I heard). Anyone interested to join?

minimum 2 and maximum 4 person per car. Fees is RM240 per car.  

This is my first posting here and i thought it be nice to share the
new Petronas Deepavali Ad if you haven’t seen it yet. You can watch the
video HERE.

Another masterpiece by Yasmin Ahmad! 

Happy Deepavali to all Malaysian brothers & sisters!

abinesh.com

If I were to provide a description of an average Indian boy from a small town in Malaysia, I would say this; a dark skinned boy with short hair, his forehead marked by gray thurnur, his dark, sparkling eyes innocently looking out into the world, his short sleeve shirt buttoned up to his neck, tucked into a pair of pants, and smiling a toothy smile that shines of trust. An average girl would probably have a pair of braids, her hair perfectly oiled, prettily dressed in a frock, having the same innocent gaze, and trusting smile. Sweet.

Unfortunately, while their parents are away at work, slogging for the future of their children, such sweet boys and girls across the community are wasting away their future watching Tamil movies and serials with their serial-fanatic grandmothers.  By the age of 12, they could recite the names of every Tamil  Nadu actor and actress that  they had the misfortune to view in Vanavil and Sun TV, more fluently than kali-kali 12.  One may claim that even if one studies day and night, the probability of one becoming a millionaire or a Nobel Price winner is less than 99.9999%.  True. But at least the awareness that education is one of the very few ways for the Indian child to better their lot in life (at least better than their parents’) would save them from the vicious cycle of poverty and hard labor! And the chances for such an escape is better than 99.999%, won’t you say?

So where are we going wrong? Why do you find hundreds and hundreds of Indian kids in schools doing badly, and growing up to be blue color workers? Why a minority community like ours is having a majority position in prisons, a majority position as rubbish collectors, and as KLIA toilet cleaners? It is not like their parents do not work hard. Try cleaning toilets the whole day or delivering newspaper at 5am in the morning. Try waking up at 4am to tap rubber, and going to work as guards in the evenings. Try working as DBKL rubbish collector during the weekdays, and as taxi drivers in the weekends. And they only just make ends meet, even with two jobs. Yet, their children are not improving their own lot in life, by having an awareness of their parent’s sufferings. Where did they go wrong?

Yes, the government should do much, much more. But it is not the fault of the government that a 10-year-old girl can recite the names of the actors in Shivaji, but fails to recite kali-kali 12 with equal fluency. So should we shoot the serial-crazed grandma? Or scream at the parents to spend more time tutoring their children, when they have hardly time to sleep, or more typically, when they themselves do not have much acquaintance with the fundamentals of the three Rs, and the Malay language? Or should we knock some sense into the heads of these kids? Is it peer pressure to not perform? Is it the fault of poorly run Tamil schools? Or is it the poor environment of their homes that simply do not inspire the child to open her books?
Personally, I had tried the knocking-sense-into-the-kid approach on my cousins. They are the blueprints for this article. I failed in instilling in them the awareness to do better. I think until now, my SPM 3rd Grade-factory working cousins have not seen the errors in their judgments. They lived for the day during their childhood, and will continue living for the day in their adulthood. And they will eventually marry and bring into this world a couple of kids each, who will be exactly like them. Sad isn’t it? The vicious cycle is never ending.

A wise man (from one of the few Tamil movies that I actually respect) stated that it takes 3 generations for a poor man to see the children in his family educated. But the Indians in Malaysia are approaching 4th and some their 5th generations, yet a majority of us are not doing so great. Those of you reading this article are the lucky few. Because 70% of our community have degenerated into laborers, and I doubt they have the time to surf www.mindsblog.com.