Gelugor Kedai; For this time, Travelog Al-Infaq was truly touched, visiting a married couple with 5 kids, aged 3 till 18.
As we arrived, the limping mother tried to help us carrying the donated goods. There were a lot of questions to ask but we tried to hold them and get in the house.
Once seated, Puan Roziah, 40 couldn’t stop thanking us and showing gratitude for our visit with those contributions brought. She didn’t have single cent with her and felt censurable because she couldn’t serve us any drink as there was no sugar in the house.
The younger children 3,4 were so exhilarated to receive all food that we brought, even shaking a coconut milk as they thought it was drinkable. Even a canned sardine appeared to be a taste of joy for these children, as food was scarce to them. When asked, although it was almost 12 in the noon, they had not eaten yet for the day.
“I just can afford to cook plain porridge as meal because there is no other food these few days. My heart aches as my children are still hungry even after eating porridge. They did not yet understand that I am poor” said Puan Roziah while wiping her tears on the cheek.
Upon hearing that, we quickly took all the food that we had in the car and even bought a few drinks for the children. They were so grateful and blissful to receive all of them even they were just light snacks and drinks. Honestly, our hearts ached seeing them.
While the kids relished their snacks, we talked with the mother to know more about her life situation and hardship.
Her husband, 38 suffered from critical asthma that his heart even stopped a few times before.
“His heart once stopped for 3 minutes. I thought I had lost him forever”, said her.
Her husband once worked at a car shop but due to his condition that continued to worsen, he had to quit his job and stayed at home. The responsibility to support the family then fell on her and she is now working as a daily housemaid, going house to house cleaning them with the payment of only RM30 if there is any.
“It has been a week since the motorcycle broke down, and I couldn’t go anywhere or even to work” she said.
Not only her husband is critically ill, she also suffers from other illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes and gout. That was the reason why she was limping when she walked to help us carry the goods just now.
As we have seen their struggle, we urge others to contribute too so we can ease their burden. For us, it could have been a little, but it means thousands for them.
اتَّقُوا النَّارَ وَلَوْ بِشِقِّ تَمْرَةٍ
“Protect yourselves from the fire of Hell, even with half a date”
Authentic Hadith Bukhari and Muslim
“Al-Infaq, easing the upper and lower hands”
