Covid-19

Your giving enables us to distribute food and essential items to our students, communities and our B40 staff.

Support

12 May 2020

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, all schools have been closed since 16th March 2020. This has caused a serious disruption not just to the provision of access but also the safety, health and well-being of the population of children and families Dignity work with.

Many of the parents of families we serve are from the B40 and refugee/migrant community, who hold blue-collar or manual labour jobs, serving in hard-hit industries like F&B and sanitation. Many families have one or both parents losing their jobs, which immediately disrupt their ability to put food on the table, pay for rental and other critical items such as health care. We have students staying in Red Zones, as well as areas that have seen high levels of lockdown, including the Selayang Pasar area, Blue Mansion area and areas undergoing ECMO (Kampung Baru, Selayang, Taman Wilayah).

Dignity has responded immediately by providing food, groceries and personal hygiene items since the lockdown announcement in March. For the families that we are targeting, the difficulties they face will not end with the lifting of the MCO. This week, more families will be running out of the necessities. During this RMCO, it may not be as easy to find jobs because of the economic impact and also most of their refugees’ status. As long as we have the donations and resources, we hope to be able to help them on the journey of recovery.

The Support

Education: For our students, our vision is to break the cycle of poverty through education. Once the situation changes and school can restart, we will be working to help the students remain in school. It is critical that we remove as many barriers as possible for our children to stay in the learning system, and not go out into the workforce.
Food & Groceries
Other Immediate needs: milk powder for infant and toddlers, sanitary pads, sanitizers, diapers
Rental and Utility bills

Food and essential items distributed to:

2,349

families

12,102

food packs distributed

3,700

PPE suits

70.6% are students; 6.6% are B40 staff; 22.8% are community members/ public appeals
Distribution pack includes: rice, oil, flour, canned food, noodles, eggs, milk, potatoes, garlic, onion, and other needed items depending on each families

Amount spent to date: RM625,825.45

In-kind donationes recieved (valued estimation): RM334,282.46

How does Dignity choose the recipients?
Our teachers are in touch with our students to gather information on which family need help and we register them in our list. Our Welfare team also included the needy families that Dignity supports with groceries on a monthly basis. We have also included families which are especially vulnerable – those with elderly head of families, single parents, people with disabilities, etc. For public appeals, our welfare team will call and access the needs and support those within the Klang Valley area otherwise we will refer them to other NGOs/ external parties.
How do you make sure that you are not spreading the virus while doing the distribution?
We practise non-contact hand-over of the items and only a handful of staff are involved for this distribution to remain social distancing and safety. The items are packed and put out for the families to collect over a staggered time frame. We also use Grab delivery for those that are unable to come over to the centre to collect.
What are in your packs?
They consist of mostly staples like, rice, flour, oil, potatoes, milk, chocolate drink, 2-3 canned food, noodles, vitamin C, etc. The composition is based on our past experience – when we distributed food to families in need during year-end and Raya. As mentioned before, we also listen to their needs and adjust as we go along. We also include hygiene and sanitary products, stationery items for those that requests for it.
How do you source the food and other items?
We buy the from our usual suppliers whom we have patronized for our previous distributions. We have also purchased from MyDin and got them to deliver directly to us. Other than that, in-kind donations by companies and individuals are delivered directly to our centre in Sentul.
What are your future plans?
For the families that we are targeting, the difficulties they face will not end with the lifting of the MCO. This week, more families will be running out of the necessities. When the MCO is lifted, it may not be as easy to find jobs because of the economic impact. As long as we have the donations and resources, we hope to be able to help them on the journey of recovery.

We have budgeted RM200 for each family we help. Our greatest challenge now is funding because not just us or the families we hope to help are impacted but the entire nation is as well. Everyone is feeling uncertain and, admittedly, under such circumstances, raising funds and asking for donations is a great challenge. But we will persevere as I know that there are still extraordinary people out there who will lend a hand.

For our students, our vision is to break the cycle of poverty through education. Once the situation changes and school can restart, we will be working to help the students remain in school, probably more will be needing financial help to stay in school. We do hope that there will be those who will stay on this journey with us to ensure the children have the education to change their own lives and their families.

The support continues...

As we move into the next phase of the RMCO, we in Dignity are planning to journey with them in:

Helping in whatever we can as they look for jobs and income generating activities.
That they will not lose the roof over their heads if they cannot pay for their rent or utilities.
Bridging the digital divide so that our students will continue to receive an education.

How you can help

Bank Name : Public Bank Berhad
Account Name : Dignity for Children Foundation
Account No. : 3-9804775-36
Remarks: covid19

For in-kind contributions, kindly contact: dignity@dignityforchildren.org / 017 3787579

About Dignity

Our work began in 1998 in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur with only 20 students then. Dignity is now a learning centre with more than 2,300 children ranging from 2-19 years old.

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Donations are exempted from income tax under subsection 44(6) Income Tax Act 1967. Tax exemption receipt is available upon request.

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