Lunch for Myanmar Refugee Children

By ESTHER CHANDRAN
estherc@thestar.com.my
Photos by SAMUEL ONG

MYANMAR child refugees, victims of the political situation in Myanmar who had walked more than 1,000km from the land of their birth to seek shelter in Malaysia, forgot those painful steps as they played gleefully at the St Francis Church of Assisi in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

The children were guests of the church, having been invited to the Soup Kitchen lunch organised by the church and www.bobasia.org.

While they played, two pots of porridge sat on the fire, bubbling away.

Lunch treat: The children being served porridge and fried chicken.

The porridge and buckets of fried chicken were an appetising sight indeed.

It was just after 12.30pm and the children were happy to be in the church compound with their friends and volunteers, as they knew it would be lunchtime soon.

So after working up an appetite, 30 children, accompanied by nine adults, sat down to savour chicken porridge and fried chicken.

The trees provided shade while the band 7 Days After performed a few songs in the background.

Parish priest Father Valentine Gompok said the Soup Kitchen was an outreach programme for Myanmar children and was the brainchild of the church's Integral Human Development Ministry (IHD) supported by the Youth Ministry.

“Usually we cook the food and send it to them but today is a little different as we wanted to have a carnival atmosphere for them to enjoy themselves, so we brought them to the church,” he said, adding that the children would be able to enjoy music, food and games at the event.

Joy on their faces: The children singing a folk song in appreciation of the food provided to them.

Gompok said he was happy the youths of the church had come forward to play an active role in putting the Soup Kitchen together.

Members of the Youth Ministry and bands 7 Days After and 21 Jump Street arrived early to cook the porridge.

The bands are part of the Battle of the Bands Operation Just Cause – an inter-college initiative to lend a helping hand to the needy.

“The church is doing a small part to welcome the Myanmar refugees into our parish,” Gompok said.

Bobasia.org and myc.com.my chief executive officer Jason Ko said the Myanmar children and their families were scattered all around Cheras and were presently stateless.

“They are refugees under the care of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). They have no proper documents and are not able to work here but they do odd jobs to make a living,” Ko said.

IHD head James Savarinathan said the refugees were previously farmers from the mountainous area in Myanmar's Chin state.

“They depended on what the earth provided and they lived happily.

“That was. until the military robbed them of their happiness and forced them to do hard labour, took their food and material things, raped their women and also killed them,” he claimed.

He said that the refugees left Myanmar seeking refuge in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“When they arrived here, they were no longer healthy. They were tired and had pneumonia, tuberculosis, gastritis and other health problems. Three to four families cramp up in one flat to save on rental,” he said.

“Their daily diet consists of rice, soup and vegetables and they can only eat meat if the man of the house brings home a pay cheque,” he said.

When ask why the soup kitchen was not open every day, Saravinathan said: “Because we do not have the funds.”

He said besides food, their other immediate need was medical assistance.

“We are only taking care of 30 children; there are 140 more living in the vicinity,” he said.