The KL Krash Pad is a non-profit initiative aiming to help and educate street children in Chow Kit, one of downtown Kuala Lumpur’s roughest sections. The children in the area are at risk of succumbing to gang violence, petty crime, substance abuse and HIV infection.
As of next month, the NGO will no longer receive funding from the Federal Government to aid its efforts.
According to children’s rights activist Dr Hartini Zainuddin, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry will stop providing funds for the KL Krash Pad beginning January 2015.
“The ministry has cut funding to KL Krash Pad. They cut off everything. They have cut off money for the marginalised groups in Chow Kit.
“As far as I know, she (minister Rohani Abdul Jalil) has cut off funding for all the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with marginalised groups in Chow Kit,” she told The Malaysian Insider‘s Melati A Jalil.
“I’m not happy. Honestly, I’m really upset that they don’t look at the marginalised children, they don’t even talk to us about it, they just cut it off. At least talk to us.
“They sent us the letter and just said, sorry, we are cutting off your funding.”
Hartini lamented the ministry’s lack of communication, and said that things were markedly different when Rohani’s predecessor Shahrizat Jalil was in charge.
“Datuk Shahrizat was supportive of marginalised children, because she understood that the impact of not educating and housing the children would lead to even worse situation.”
KL Krash Pad’s manager M Psenthi P Maniam said the NGO was asked by the ministry to hand in a proposal justifying continued federal funding for another three years, but the proposal was rejected.
“They told us to submit a proposal, which we did to extend the funding, but the ministry said they would only fund until December,” she said.
“They (have asked) me to submit a new proposal by the middle of January to state why we need the funds, so it’s a 50-50% chance whether we will get it or not.”
A similar fate befell the Pusat Bantuan Khidmat Sosial (PBKS), or Social Services and Asssistance Centre, another charity initiative operating in Chow Kit. It mainly serves to help with Chow Kit’s women and transgender community. Almost 6,000 of its registered clients are people with HIV or AIDS.
PBKS is operated by the Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kebajikan dan Persekitaran Positif (SEED) – an organisation whose federal funding of RM700,000 is to be cut off as of next year.
