2007 06: Don’t make use of children to raise funds

The Star online. News. Opinion. Thursday June 7, 2007

IT was 9.30pm and I was just leaving my office at Tower 2 of the KLCC. At the sliding glass door, I was approached by a young Malay boy wearing a songkok and toting a sling bag.

He greeted me with a polite Assalamualaikum and started to sell a CD and some sort of medicinal balm. I have seen my share of street peddlers in KL, but what shocked me was how young he was.

I asked him how old he was and where he came from. He said he was 13 years old and from Kedah. He told me he was a student, there were two of them at KLCC that night, that his Ustaz had dropped them off at KLCC and would be waiting for them at the Kelana Jaya LRT station.
I asked what he was doing at KLCC at 9.30pm, when he should be at home doing his homework or watching TV.

He said his headmaster had told them to go to KLCC to help raise funds for his school. I asked him whether he had had his dinner and had prayed. He replied rather smugly that he had had some nasi bungkus and had already prayed at the KLCC surau.

I am appalled to see that child labour is still rearing its ugly head in our beloved country. As if there aren’t enough social ills plaguing our society, the inconsiderate way schools are making use of our youths to collect funds for their schools must be outlawed immediately.

I’m not sure whether parents of the above school know what their sons are being made to do, and I pray that the relevant authorities will take the necessary steps to eradicate this terrible injustice.

To the schools out there who make use of our youths to raise funds, stop this nonsense and just concentrate on educating them.

Azlan A. Aziz,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

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Fundraising inculcates values
The Star online. News Opinion. Saturday June 9, 2007

I REFER to Don’t make use of children to raise funds(The Star, June 7). Coming from a government-aided school, I am proud to have done my fair share of fundraising for my school.
A government-aided school does not receive enough money for expanding the school. It is for this reason that these schools resort to fundraising.

While I can’t speak for all students, I do not agree that collecting funds for a school contributes to “social ills plaguing our society”. It is during these fundraisers that students learn to be humble and appreciate the value of money, as it takes a lot of cajoling to raise a ringgit or two.
Fundraising cannot be constituted as child labour. As far as my former school was concerned, nobody was forced to take part in the annual fundraiser and neither was anyone given a salary for it.

Fundraising wasn’t nonsense to me; it certainly was part of my childhood education.

LEE SENG JEA,
Kuala Lumpur.