AFTER successfully helping low-income families to venture into business and earn some income during the Hari Raya celebration, the Bukit Mertajam parliamentary service centre is now assisting 10 families during this Dumpling Festival period.
Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said his service centre provided financial aid under the ‘Dignified Aid’ programme to help single mothers and low-income families who were badly affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
“During the Hari Raya celebration this year, we selected a few low-income families and gave each family a RM500 cash aid to make Raya delicacies (kuih raya).
“We helped to promote their products after they have made the Raya delicacies. The profits from the sale of products were given back to them,” Sim said.
Sim said: “Similar effort is being done to assist needy families during this Dumpling Festival period.”
Dumpling or better known as ‘bak chang’ is a well-known traditional favourite among the Chinese community.
“We want them to be independent and generate their own income instead of waiting to be assisted by any charitable organisation,” he told reporters at his service centre today.
Sim said the families could purchase the ingredients and equipment to make dumplings with the RM500 aid.
“We will help them to sell the dumplings through our Bukit Mertajam service centre Facebook page, as well as, through other means of promotion.
“We will help each of them sell the dumplings until it reaches at least RM2,000 in sales revenue.
“In short, they just need to make the dumplings and we will help them do the rest. They will get the profits,” he said.
Sim said that the sale of dumplings has garnered some RM20,000 at present.
He added that the initiative was chosen in conjunction with the Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie) that is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month annually.
“We want to encourage the needy to be productive and independent and we can help them with our platform,” Sim said.
On a separate note, Sim said his service centre had given away 10 tonnes of food products to needy families in Bukit Mertajam since the movement control order (MCO) period.
“We have also distributed some 20,000 packs of cooked food throughout the MCO.
“Our efforts to help the poor will continue,” he added.
Story and Pix by Riadz Akmal