Pic of homeless people in the heart of KL

With Christmas just days away, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming questions the government on funds stoppages for marginalized children and homeless in Chow Kit.

The DAP MP highlighted that the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development would stop channeling funds to two NGO’s starting next year. The NGO’s in question are Pusat Bantuan Khidmat Sosial (PBKS) and KL Crash Pad.

“According to reports and volunteers, PBKS seems to be providing exactly the kind of services which the Minister of Federal Territories, Tengku Adnan, had said DBKL would supply.But with the stoppage of funding from the Ministry, the ability of PBKS to continue its services and activities have been put in danger,” Ong said.

PKBS, he says, acts as a one stop center to the marginalized in the Chow Kit area.

The other NGO having its funds cut off, is teen and youth center called KL Crash pad run by Yayasan Chow Kit. It is reported that starting next year, the group would stop receiving the RM 300 000 it usually get annually.

Ong questioned the funding cuts despite the increase of the Ministry’s budget for community welfare.

“The irony of these funding stoppages is that the overall operating budget of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development has almost doubled from RM1.04 billion in 2010 to an estimated RM2.04 billion in 2015!”

“The budget for community welfare (‘kebajikan masyarakat’) has increased from RM195.6 million 2010 to an estimated RM314.6 million in 2015, an increase of 61%.”

Ong also added that the RM1 million it takes to run the activities of PBKS and KL Krash Pad for one year amounted to 0.3% of the total budget for community welfare.

“Is the Minister, Datuk Hajah Rohani binti Abdul Karim, so heartless as to deprive the marginalized children, poor and homeless in the Chow Kit area access to the services offered by these two NGOs?” he asked.

PBKS was initiated by the Ministry in 2007, who also pays rent for the premises. According to reports, the AIDS Council had informed PBKS that the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development no longer considered the group to be part of its “core business”. –The Rocket