KUALA KANGSAR: A rundown wooden house belonging to a retired tailor and her bedridden sister has been repaired and made more spacious.
Rosnah Abdul Hamid, 62, and Roslela Abdul Hamid, 47, had called in to radio show Deme tanya, Pak Ngah jawab (They ask, Pak Ngah answers) to ask for help last September.
State government Information Chief Datuk Hamdi Abu Bakar (Pak Ngah) had helped to organise a two-week gotong-royong to repair the house in Kampung Maran, 15km from here.
Representatives of the state welfare agency, Yayasan Bina Upaya Darul Ridzuan, and villagers took part in the exercise
Hamdi also handed over RM15,000 in donations to the sisters for the repairs and improvement works.
“Instead of only providing monetary aid, we wanted to show our sincerity by taking part in the improvement works.
“It was also a chance to meet Rosnah and her sister.”
Roslela, who became paralysed in 2006, suffers from cancer and arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an abnormality of the blood vessels in the brain.
“It was getting difficult to climb the stairs and move around in the limited space of our double-storey house, which was built by my parents before Merdeka,” said Rosnah.
“My sister was bothered by the heat and I was desperate to improve the environment around her,” said Rosnah who has single-handedly cared for her sister after their father passed away three years ago.
She said she decided to try her luck with the radio programme after receiving advice from friends and fellow villagers.
Hamdi, who has been involved with the programme since March 2009, said the sisters’ case proved that the show was successful in reaching out to the people of Perak.
He said the show, proposed by Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, had fulfilled the aim of disseminating information and tackling issues faced by the people.
To date, the programme has received 587 complaints and feedback calls, and 348 have been solved.
The one-hour programme is on every Tuesday at 9am. To lodge complaints, call 05-546 9955.
