It may be the pits for SEED residents

KUALA LUMPUR: The homeless and destitute community in Chow Kit will be in a quandary should the shelter run for them by Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kebajikan dan Persekitaran Positif (SEED) close at the end of the year.

SEED acting executive director Mitch Yusmar said the half-way centre faces inevitable closure as the Federal Government had stopped its annual funding.

SEED receives RM700,000 yearly from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry through the Malaysian AIDS Council to help the homeless community, made-up of female and transgender sex workers, drug users and people living with HIV.

The centre provided this community a home as well as an avenue to turn their lives around, said Mitch.

A letter dated Dec 4 was sent to the council informing them of the cessation of the funding. Subsequently all 17 employees of the centre received termination notices.

Mitch said the closure would result in members of the community losing a place to go to during the day to bathe, wash their clothes, have a meal and to rest.

Those coming to the centre are also taught English and given basic computer classes as well as skills, such as baking and making various accesories.

Those living with HIV and family members of those who had died of AIDS also receive help in monitoring their health and managing hospital visits.

“We collect medicines on behalf of people who live far from the hospitals,” said Mitch.

SEED also does job referrals and has referred 226 transgender persons, 123 female sex workers and 128 people living with HIV for job placements.

Out of these, 143 transgendered people, 107 former female sex workers and 66 people living with HIV have successfully found jobs.

The council’s honorary secretary, Hisham Hussein, said SEED started receiving the RM700,000 grant in 2007 after then minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil visited the area in 2006.

She was saddened by what she saw and decided that the marginalised community in Chow Kit needed help, said Mitch.

He said the closure of the centre would result in the current beneficiaries losing the three meals the centre provides daily from Tuesday to Saturday.

Malaysian Mental Health Association deputy president Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj said the SEED centre played an important role in reintegrating members of the marginalised community into mainstream society by getting them jobs.

“Besides taking care of their physiological well-being – by empowering and motivating them – the centre helps to secure them a livelihood,” said Dr Andrew, who is also a member of the Health Ministry’s Mental Health Promotion Advisory Council.

The Ministry’s National Social Policy Department secretary Che Samsuzuki Che Noh, who had signed the letter to the AIDS Council on the cessation of the funding, was not available for comment at press time.

A ministry source said an official statement pertaining to the matter would be issued soon.

The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is reportedly working towards building a data profile of the homeless, including the Chow Kit destitue community, that is expected to be completed in 2016.