Rizal Faisal

The Brunei Council on Social Welfare (MKM) conducted a postmortem for the MKM Live 2020 Concert that was held on January 4.

The MKM Live 2020 Concert was organised to raise funds to repair 80-year-old local widow Jamping’s dilapidated Kampong Madang house. Various local artistes were featured at the concert, performing songs from a variety of genres, including opera, rap, religious and ballads.

The postmortem was conducted at the MKM Sungai Hanching office, chaired by its President Haji Mohd Yusof bin Shaikh Abdul Halim.

At the postmortem, Datin Paduka Hajah Intan binti Haji Mohd Kassim, who was chair of the organising committee, reported that MKM received BND41,152 from sales of tickets for the concert as well as direct donations. After deducting the costs incurred in the concert, a profit of BND27,493.45 was realised. All participating artistes had only asked for nominal allowance, and in some cases, not asked for any payments for their performance.

The Executive Committee utilised all profits to repair the elderly woman’s house.

“The repair is urgently needed as the house is in a sorry state and is termite infested. It is not safe for the old lady and her family to be staying there,” said Haji Mohd Yusof.

MKM had invited quotations from contractors to do the repair works, and a local contractor’s offer of BND39,700 had been accepted.

“We are more than BND12,000 short, but we will start with the repair works and source out further donations to meet this shortfall,” said Haji Mohd Yusof.

The repairs are expected to take six months, and the elderly widow and her family have had to find temporary housing during that period.

“We approached the Community Development Department (JAPEM) to assist us in the temporary housing for the old lady and her family, and are grateful that JAPEM has agreed.”

JAPEM handed over the keys for the temporary housing to Jamping on January 27. The handover was carried out by JAPEM officer Mohammad Johardi bin Hamdi.

Jamping said, “For many years, people had come to my house and took pictures and videos of me and my family. We have got many promises to repair the house but nothing happened. I am sure they meant well, but were unable to carry out the repair works. It got to the point that l did not want to welcome anyone who said they wanted to help, because l did not want to be disappointed again,” she said.

Teary-eyed, Jamping said, “I was so fearful that the house would collapse on us. It was termite-infested and for safety reasons, we are unable to use some areas of the house and had to cramp in the remaining usable areas.”

“MKM has helped me and my family with basic food necessity for a few years now. I am so grateful to them. They have moved me and my family to temporary accommodation and the repair to my house will actually start. It is like a dream come true. We are so looking forward to spending this Hari Raya in a better and safer house.”

“My family and l are so grateful to MKM and to all those who had donated and pray that Allah the Almighty will reward them for their good deeds,” Jamping added.

MKM will be sourcing direct donations from local authorities, corporate institutions and the general public, either in cash or for the building materials that are needed in the repair.

Repair works for the house will be starting soon and the public can keep abreast with the progress of the repair work through MKM’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

MKM is wholly dependent on donations to carry out its various charitable programmes.

This is part of MKM’s local projects to assist the needy at regular intervals, since 2012 in most instances. These include daily, weekly, monthly, Ramadhan projects and beyond.