Shelter home houses 22 children

A shelter home at Mount Erskine in Penang has been providing the care and guidance for 22 children who have had an underprivileged upbringing.

Shan Children’s Home, which operates entirely on public funds, sponsors the children’s school education and has a systematic educations system for the rest of the children’s free time in an attempt to keep them busy.

“These children have got a lot of traumas and submerged emotional feelings,” said Dr Chandra, who runs the home.

In order not to remind the children of their traumatic experiences, the home exercises a colorful schedule to keep the children occupied with afterschool and weekend activities.

“We have volunteers coming in and teaching them academic lessons. We also have yoga classes, and these days we have the International Women Association coming in and teaching them computer classes,” said Dr Chandra, who is also a former headmaster.

He also elaborated that at the home, the children are not exposed to television shows, in exception of a cartoon show every Saturday night.

“We came to the conclusion that television shows do not serve any purpose for these children,” he said.

The youngest child at the home is 7 years old, while most are between 9 and 13 years old.

Many of them come from dysfunctional families and through single mothers, while there are also orphans among them.

“Many of them come from Penang, and also Kedah and Kuala Lumpur,” Chandra said.

The home officially began operating in December 2008, and is set up on a donated land, and even the premise was built by a philanthropist named Madam Chan.

It is a non-religious and non-racial shelter home organization.

It is estimated that the home needs RM 10,000 per month to house the 22 children that they currently have.

Those interested in making donation can call Dr Chandra at 016-4127711 or e-mail at [email protected].

Watch the video: Penang Shan Children’s Home | 6:58 by Carolyn Khor