Take The Path Less Ordinary

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Fadhil Isma who live in Johor Bahru for responding to our plea for donation after reading our posts “Merdeka Charity - Buy a ball for Orang Asli kids” and “Charity veers wayside” recently in October. He graciously wired a generous amount of money into our account and told us to bring some cheers to the kids. Fadhil writes and keeps a prolific blog titled “Just Observations .. “ cranking from the southern tip of peninsula Malaysia and his musings are never short of fans.

The Nike balls were handed over to Tok Batins (chieftains) during our weekly rounds to distribute used clothes to numerous Orang Asli villages that pepper the outer ream Kinta valley.

While no one could safely offer a solution to eradicate poverty in the countryside, little gifts help kids dampen the grim reality of less fortunate life. It also goes to show them that Orang Asli are not entirely forgotten by well-meaning urbanites. At time of writing, Orang Asli population stands at 190,000-ish in Malaysia, which is less than 1% of total population 27 million. Hence, it doesn’t take much to lend a helping hand and everyone can play a small part in tying up loose ends. Instead of going for the ideal, choose what’s doable.

It’s hip to write and talk about poverty - but doing something is better. And Fadhil is one of the lone few who leads the way.

Abang Sum (left), OO’s co-founder, mingling with the kids cooing at the new ball.