Chance for couples to rekindle lost spark in marriages

For a better relationship: Tan (centre) holding a book on ‘Building Happy Families’ at the press conference in Seremban. Also present were state National Population and Family Development Board director Bibi Azlilee Abdullah and state Women Development Department director Ruzanna Sager Ahmad (left).

SEREMBAN: Couples who need to rekindle the lost spark in their marriage can now sign up for a government-sponsored “Second Honeymoon” initiative.

One of the main considerations is that they must have been married for more than five years and signed up with a registered non-governmental organisation (NGO) which would in turn apply for a government grant under the “SmartStart Second Honeymoon” scheme to run the activities.

However, the NGOs keen on participating in the programme need to have 25 couples to manage the scheme which is run by the Women, Family and Community Develop­ment Ministry.

State women, family and welfare committee chairman Nicole Tan Lee Koon said couples should join the programme to rediscover their marriage.

“Among the activities in the programme are one-night hotel stay, a candlelight dinner, learning to deal with stress and conflicts as well as a dance therapy which costs about RM500,” she told reporters.

Tan said NGOs can apply for a higher grant if they wished to organise a three-day-two-night programme for couples.

Ministry officers, she said, would also hold special sessions and share tips with the couples on how to make their marriages more meaningful.

“The government first introduced this programme in 2010 but sadly the response has been lukewarm,” she said.

Previously, participation was only opened to those who had been married for 10 years.

“In Negri Sembilan, only 150 couples signed up since the programme was launched,” she said, adding that findings made during some of these sessions have been quite startling.

“There was a case where a couple married for 30 years had not hugged each other for the past 25 years.

“After they attended the programme, they realised how much they loved one another and that was the spark that they actually needed,” Tan said, adding that during the programme, spouses are also taught not to take one another for granted.

She also expressed hope more NGOs will run the initiative to encourage couples to sign up for the programme.

She said only 1,060 of the 8,000 registered housewives in the state have signed up for i-Suri incentive scheme since it started last June.

“We believe many housewives do not know about this programme and we are targeting to register another 1,200 in the second quarter of this year,” she said.

The programme was introduced by the Pakatan Harapan government to encourage housewives, single mothers, divorcees and widows to start saving independently for their future.

Husbands of the registered recipients will contribute a minimum amount of RM5 monthly or RM60 per year to receive RM40 monthly for their wives from the government.