Stepping Stones Living Center has been providing food, shelter, and safety for abused women and children, abandoned elderly, and pregnant single mothers in the Kuala Lumpur area for the last 20 years. It’s been a labor of love and sacrifice for Pastor Johnson and his wife Nina, along with the help of several individuals who oversee the center’s various homes.
Initially housing three kids, 45 boys and girls now call the center home, ranging anywhere from two years old, to 17, along with ten widows and single mothers, and six abandoned elderly.
Hundreds of children have passed through the center’s doors since it was established in 1998 — children whose parents can no longer take care of them, children who have been abandoned, and children whose past is a mystery, but whose present will be safe within the building’s walls.
Unfortunately, those walls are beginning to show their wear and tear, and one of Kuala Lumpur’s most recognizable faces, Jonathan Charles, aka JonnyVicious, wants to do something about it.
Full disclosure, this isn’t Jon’s first time working with Stepping Stones: Over the last three years at Christmas, he has corralled his friends, and taken donations to buy presents for the kids at the home. Along with whoever else has extra holiday time to share, he takes the gifts to the home and spends a few hours with the kids, making sure they get extra love and attention that year.
Having noticed that the home was in need of many repairs, he decided to do something different this year: Get together 50 (yes, FIFTY) of his favorite DJs and put on the biggest Christmas benefit that KL nightlife has seen in a long time.
Raffle tickets are RM20 a pop, and if you’re willing to throw down what you might spend in alcohol during a night or a weekend brunch, on these tickets instead, then you could find yourself winning a luxury stay at Rawa Lombok, or Frangipani Langkawi, or two of Holiday Villa’s resorts; passes to the 10-day long Epizode music festival in Phu Quoc, Vietnam; or a stay and spa treatment at the W Kuala Lumpur, while simultaneously helping with repairs on a children’s home.
In fact, the sheer number of vendors, DJs, friends and favors that Jon has managed to pull in for the cause is genuinely impressive.
Ambitious? No. That’s just JonnyVicious.
“I’ve been wanting to help them so much as no child deserves to sleep on a floor with almost no roof above their heads. The kids deserve a better place for them to be productive so we can motivate them to want to be something as they grow older.”
“I believe it is our social responsibility to help.”
Held at Pisco Bar, Kuala Lumpur’s number one place to listen to the greatest tunes, and also make new friends (well, we’ve had good times there, anyway), the event will start at 3pm Sunday, December 9 and will go on ’til the early hours of the morning.
Earlier this year, Jon went to the home together with fellow DJ and photographer Roshan Menon, and took photos of the kids and some of the living conditions they hope to improve.
Peep the snaps below. Find your heart. Donate HERE or buy tickets on the night. Come. Dance. Make new friends. End 2018 with goodness in your soul and karma in the bank.
29 Jalan Mesui, Bukit Bintang
50200 Kuala Lumpur
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