In line with the theme of Children’s activity, here are some updates on two teenage boys we have been helping:

Brandon*(same boy from Volume 3, 2014 ) who has been with us since then, is approaching a crossroad in his life. It is at this point where many youth from our Home would make the choice that often defines their future. As much as we have done our part to impart the bare basics of education (reading and spelling), tertiary education is unfortunately out of his reach. Hence we must start preparing him for a vocational career.

Brandon has expressed that he is interested in carpentry as well as electrical wiring work. But after BOSCH came (as shared in Volume 1, 2016) to teach the basics of these, Brandon realized that he is not cut out for it.  Hence he is willing to give culinary art a try instead. One of our staff is now in the midst of arranging to have him go through a few days at Park Royale to get a taste of what it is like working in this job. There are also two volunteers who are ex-chefs who told our staff that they are willing to work side by side to groom him and see if he has such potential. We are doing all these to ensure that he is serious in what he wants and also have what it takes to finish a huge commitment like going for a vocational course or an internship programme.

Muthu* another teenage boy at Shelter 3,came to us also at a very late age, struggled a lot in class as well. Muthu expressed that he wanted to learn the basics of Bahasa , English and Mathematics so just like every other child who is struggling; we arranged tuition classes for him. However, just like Charles, Muthu has great difficulty catching up with the lessons. After some discussion with him and the management, Muthu expressed that he would like to stop schooling and channel his time and energy into vocational studies. He is keen to study in the electrical field.

With his grandmother’s support and ours, Muthu is determined to start right away. As we are writing this, Muthu has started his classes and we are still sorting out some documentation work.

More often than not, it can be a serious uphill battle to workout with whatever time we have left with them to give them a good future.  A lot of an individual’s potential is best nurtured in the infancy to early childhood (age 2 – 8) stage where the brain is stimulated and concrete foundation of emotions and learning are laid. However, for every individual that comes our way, we want to try our best to help them and to have the opportunity to make the best of their life. 

*Names are aliases given to protect their identity