En Nasir and his wife came to my office to ask for welfare support to put down a RM2,000 deposit for their daughter’s education at Universiti Utara Malaysia. I had to turn down En Nasir since my 2014 welfare allocation has been fully spent. Feeling sympathetic to their cause, I posted about their hardship on my Facebook page.
Last night, En Nasir’s family received RM1,000 from donors who responded to my Facebook posting. The donors (husband and wife) from USJ wish to remain anonymous. The lady donor surprised me with the offer last week via email. She read my Facebook posting and felt very strongly about education. She also told me that she too went to a public university.
The donors and the family met in my office last night and after initial awkwardness, it was really heart warming to see the women hugging and getting to know each other. The daughter will be studying finance at UUM and promises to update the donors on her results. En Nasir, who has 6 children recounted to us how important it is that the daughter be the first from the family to go to university and hopefully inspire her siblings and neighbours. I am also reminded that as lawmakers, one of the most important policy we must uphold is to ensure socio-economic mobility of the poor and disadvantaged; that the govt must always ensure that a person be given a fair chance to succeed irrespective of their economic background.
