Gifts lighten parents' burden

KUALA TERENGGANU: Raising six school-going children is hard on any parent. But for roti canai seller Zulkifli Awang and his wife, Rotipah Chik, the task has been monumental. Two of their children have cerebral palsy.

Ahmad Fahmi, 8, and Zul Ashraf, 10, cannot walk. Both of them are carried by their mother to attend a special class daily at SK Padang Hiliran in Bukit Besar near here.

Now, thanks to the Kuala Terengganu Rotary Club which donated wheelchairs to the family yesterday, the two children can move around without having to depend on their mother so much.

Zulkifli, 44, said they had been saving up to purchase wheelchairs for the two boys but money had been tight, especially as a wheelchair cost more than RM1,000.

“It would have taken us some time to raise money to buy the wheelchairs. We are grateful for this gift from the Rotary Club,” he said after receiving the wheelchairs from club president Philip Lee at Mydin Mall yesterday.

Two other cerebral palsy children, Mohd Fazuddin Awang, 9, also from SK Padang Hiliran, and Mohd Luqman Nurhakim Muhammad, 10, from SK Kompleks Seberang Takir, were also presented with a wheelchair each.

Lee said two wheelchairs were presented to senior citizens Ong Siew Gaik, 65, and Mariaye Ellapan, 66.

One wheelchair was donated to the neurology unit at Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital and another to Kuala Terengganu Parkinson’s Disease Association.

“The wheelchairs are a gift from the Wheelchair Foundation of Rotary International in the United States,” he said.

SOURCE: New Straits Times