KUCHING: Imagine this: Eating rotten papayas and drinking plain water to keep living.
Such is the cruel fate that has befallen a 51-year-old mentally impaired man living in dire conditions not too far from the city.
Social workers from Sentosa Hospital, where he now receives outpatient treatment, alerted Hope Place Kuching and the non-governmental organisation went to his aid promptly.
It found Bong Nyen Lin living alone in a sparsely furnished single-storey house at Stakan Road here.
“Guess I have to drink water till I’m full, since I have no money to buy food now,”it quoted Bong as saying in a statement on Monday (Feb3).
Bong, a former daily-paid construction worker, has been unemployed for the past two years due to his mental health condition.
Surviving on a RM350 monthly allowance, he buys food from a nearby coffee shop, but when his money runs out, he resorts to eating papayas and pineapples from the trees in his compound or drinking water to stave off hunger.
Concerned by his deteriorating condition, social workers from Sentosa Hospital who recently found him eating rotten papaya immediately reached out to Hope Place for help.
In response, Hope Place has committed to providing Bong with continuous food aid.
The NGO also supplied him with essential household items, including a rice cooker, an electric kettle, a clothes rack, and a new mattress to improve his living conditions.
During their visit, Hope Place also presented Bong with a lunch box meal donated by Nando’s Malaysia, which recently contributed 120 lunch boxes for distribution to underserved families and individuals.
Hope Place expressed gratitude to corporate sponsors like Nando’s for their support in helping the less fortunate.
For individuals or organisations wishing to contribute, donations to Hope Place or Persatuan Kebajikan Harapan Kuching (PKHK) can be made via bank transfer to MBB: 511289001160.
