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A lonely Christmas

Christmas is a time for forgiveness and compassion. In this festive period, have we thought about giving of ourselves? Do we ever wonder what it is like to serve others?

Like most other religious festivals in multi-racial Malaysia, Christmas has been over commercialised. As early as September, shops were already selling Christmas decorations and Christmas puddings. Most shops attempt to seduce us with decorations that grow more sophisticated each year. The competition to attract customers is stiff and we are bombarded with advertisements to spend money that most of us do not have.

There are presents to buy and parties to go to. Even adults welcome the over-indulgence. In today's modern world, families are increasingly abandoning the Christmas get-together at home and opt for lunch at restaurants, clubs or private homes.

Children pester their parents for expensive presents which by Boxing Day, have been discarded or broken. Despite the increased food prices, many of us feel that we must buy the foods and drinks that are only available around Christmas.

For some, Christmas is also the only day in the year they attend church to reconnect with their Christian faith, unlike the majority, who are regular church-goers.

For a few, it is the time to be merry and get drunk at the many Christmas parties in town.

Although Christmas is a busy festive period dedicated to family gatherings, parties and a chance to connect with our spiritual side, for one group of people, Christmas is a lonely existence. There is no home to return to, no family to spend Christmas with and no one to share their Christmas meal with. These are the homeless people and sadly, their numbers are on the rise in Malaysia.

Every major Malaysian town has its fair share of homeless people. Some of them are regular fixtures on our streets and tend to congregate in known places, like the covered walkway near Daya Bumi in Kuala Lumpur or the Super Kinta complex in Ipoh. In East Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu has a sizeable and growing homeless people problem. Sadly, the official statistics on the numbers of people who are homeless are incomplete.

For Patricia, what started out as a school project two months ago, is now a permanent part of her weekly routine. The curriculum of her International Baccalaureate studies included "community service" and she had to do a write-up of her work.

After her first visit to help the homeless, thirteen year old Patricia, her younger sister Adeline and her parents are now regulars at the soup kitchen which caters to the homeless in Kuala Lumpur city centre.

Patricia volunteers with one of a handful of soup kitchens in KL. They make three stops at Chow Kit, Kota Raya and Masjid Jamek areas. The four nights they operate are on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

There are ten people in the core group of volunteers although numbers may swell on some nights. The driver and the head of the organisation travel in a white van which carries enough food and drink for 600 people. The others follow in their own cars.

For Patricia, volunteering has been an eye-opener: "I never realised there were so many homeless people. Perhaps I never noticed them before because I am never out this late."

Patricia explained that the 'operation' starts around 9 p.m. and that the first stop which feeds around 200 people, takes about 40 minutes. Their night ends around 11:30 p.m.

"Initially, I wondered about the late start. Apparently, the homeless "come out" at this time. Maybe this is when shoppers leave and the homeless take over the pavements.

"I thought I would hate it but now I feel very good about helping the poor. My sister and I take our duties seriously. I thought we would be too young to help out, but the lady who runs this soup kitchen was very encouraging and said that one is never too young to help.

"Volunteering has taught me many things. Discipline. Compassion. Responsibility. Everything here is strictly run to make things work smoothly. The adults, like my parents and the other volunteers take care of security and clear the rubbish afterwards.

"I help the regulars by handing out the food parcels, or opening the paper bags or dishing out the extras, food which people have donated. We each have specific roles."

Patricia explained when the soup van appears, the homeless would "magically appear from nowhere" and form three queues, one for children and women, another for the elderly and the last, for men.

"First they get a choice of a soft drink or hot coffee. I hand them the opened paper bag which contains their main meal. Last time was nasi lemak. They move down the queue and one of us drops a banana, then a bun and biscuits into the opened bag. Lastly, they'll receive non-perishable food to keep. "

Patricia who attends a school in Kuala Lumpur explained that once, she was alarmed when the van arrived late at the second stop, the Kota Raya car-park.

"What happened was that the van noticed a group of homeless people en-route and stopped to distribute the food parcels. I was told that some of them were starving because they tore at the food packages to eat immediately."

An adult volunteer said that there was no discrimination with handing out the food parcels. "We give food to anyone who needs it. We do not look at race or religion. We do insist that they come to receive it themselves though, because one or two have asked to take several packets away. Our service is really by word-of-mouth."

Another first-time volunteer was suitably impressed: "I give credit to the organiser of this soup kitchen. The crowd is very organised and efficiently run. The people here are better behaved than the one at Najib's (the Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak) open house for Hari Raya."

In 2008, Universiti Malaya presented a conference paper entitled "Homelessness in Malaysia: A public policy issue?" about the homeless people in Kuala Lumpur. The findings showed that there was a lack of a developed public policy in relation to homelessness. It also stated that there were no statistics on the number of homeless people, and that the only available data by the Social Welfare Department was on people they housed.

Last week, in the run-up to Christmas, Patricia said she was deeply moved by an elderly Chinese gentleman who wished her Happy Christmas as she gave him his food parcel. For this little girl, whose main celebration was Hari Raya, the thought of the frail man spending Christmas on his own, was saddening.

"Before I did this, I thought homelessness was confined to old ladies or old men because they had been dumped by their families. But I also see so many young people here in the queue. Had they fought with their parents? I never ask the people in the queue why they are there. They must have a good reason for being here.

"But it is sad that at a time like Christmas, they have to be out on the streets, on their own, away from their families. Perhaps, what we have given them will make up for the loss of their own loved ones."