Ballet concert to raise funds for school, foster home
Published on: Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Kota Kinabalu: The founder of a NGO dedicated to helping the underprivileged called on Malaysians in Sabah to rally behind the "Voice of the Unheard Cries of poor and hungry children in Malaysia."One way of doing this is by watching the first full-length 45-member cast classical ballet concert to be staged in Sabah because they would be also contributing to charity, said Living Hope Malaysia Sdn Bhd's Dr Peggy Wong. Living Hope was started two years ago and the performance she is referring to is "The Slave Princess" on Friday and Saturday.
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The two shows at Sabah Foundation's Tun Raffae Auditorium include a matinee at 2pm on Aug. 28 for students at RM40 and RM30 while the main show on August 29 at 8pm is priced at RM120 and RM60.The historic production is a joint effort between the Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu (President Janny Lee), Society of Performing Arts Kota Kinabalu (SPArKs), Chung Hwa School Kota Kinabalu and Living Hope, to raise funds for Chung Hwa School Building Fund and Jireh Home, a foster home for the neglected, under-privileged and abused. "Our joint effort manifests a fantastic way of co-operation between East and West Malaysia in a really united effort to use our abilities and areas of talents to help the under-privileged," Dr Wong noted."We bring in the dancers and idea and you do all the worries about fund raising," she quipped.
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Formed two years ago, Living Hope is already helping some 7,500 under various programmes. "But we estimate there are probably two million poor children in Malaysia some of whom get no more than a meal of just rice and salt fish a day, she said.She said she was "shocked" to meet a family with 14 children in KL recently with the father just a lorry driver earning about RM600 a month, which drove home the reality of urban poverty.
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"How they feed the children I don't know," she said."There are children who can't go to school because of RM5. It may be small money but then you find out the family earns only RM500 and there are usually five to six kids and they can't pay fees like computer fees so they don't go to school," she noted."I used to run an orphanage with 70 children and I thought those were the only poor but going round most major states I saw lots of really poor children and I feel very sad because a lot of them are children of single mothers whose suffering nobody knows."They really need help and we can do a lot. "I am there to give them food and shelter but the only thing an orphanage cannot give is the love of parents. We found that even though parents beat them up, they still need affirmation from the parents. "They always come to me and ask 'Why does mother leave me here or why does father run away and I can't answer them," she said.To Dr Wong, everyone has three things - Time, Talents and Treasure.Dr Wong, who is instrumental in enlisting the support of the Dance Society of Malaysia under lawyer Sunny Chan, credited the "persistence" of Jonathon Kwan and Datuk Adeline Leong's "influence" in convincing the fruition of such a united front. "We already have the most talented ballet dancers coming from Hong Kong and KL, such as veteran choreographer Ms Yupin Lee who has been here three times to guide and coach local ballerinas (mostly students Alpha Ballet School under Joan Lu) of and local joint-organisers giving their time."But through the media I wish to send a note to people who have the treasure - rich individuals and corporations, to help us," she said."We still have a lot of tickets on sale. What is RM30 and buying in bulk of 100 tickets amounts to only RM3,000? If they are not using the tickets, we can redistribute the tickets to poor villagers," she said.According to Adeline, about 600 tickets are still available for the matinee while 80 per cent of the tickets for the main show on 29 August have already been sold - suggesting that KK folks have cultivated a fine taste for the arts.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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