{"id":9927,"date":"2010-11-16T00:00:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T00:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?page_id=9927"},"modified":"2015-05-28T02:34:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T02:34:55","slug":"ukm-psychology-counseling-students-reach-out-to-kls-vagrants","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2010\/november-2010\/ukm-psychology-counseling-students-reach-out-to-kls-vagrants\/","title":{"rendered":"UKM Psychology Counseling students reach out to KL\u2019s vagrants"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">0<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ukm.my%2Fnews%2Farchive%2Fyear-2010%2Fnovember-2010%2Fukm-psychology-counseling-students-reach-out-to-kls-vagrants%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?p=9927&amp;via=https:\/\/twitter.com\/ukmtwit\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-toggle-container\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus_News_Picture\/gelandangan1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2010 10:51<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By Abdul Ghani Nasir<br \/>\nPix by Saliman Leman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nBANGI, 16 \u00a0Nov. 2010 \u2013\u00a0Sleeping on the five foot path while collecting discarded\u00a0boxes to be sold to buy food for the day \u2013 is not a sad short story but the real life of a vagrant in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nThe sufferings of this man from Sabah came to light when he came to collect food packages distributed by Pertiwi Soup Kitchen at one of the streets near Medan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in the Federal Capital recently.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nProfesor Dr Rohany Nasir from the School of Psychology and Human Development, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities (FSSH), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) who met the man said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cHe man came to Kuala Lumpur from Sabah nine years ago full of hope but had not been able to get a proper job and had lived a vagrant\u2019s life since. He was only able to collect disused boxes to be sold to buy food and sleep in the five foot path every night.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cHe refused to go back to Sabah as he said life in his home town is much harder,\u201d said Prof Rohany who was involved as a volunteer helping Pertiwi Soup Kitchen since last June.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nThe package of food which usually consists of rice with gravy, egg and a slice of fruit cost RM4 each is handled by Pertiwi Soup Kitchen run by Puan Munirah Abdul Hamid. The food package with a drink is distributed every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nProf Rohany said \u201cwe can understand their sufferings only after meeting, talking and mixing around with them. They usually slept on the five foot paths, under the bridges or at bus stations in the city centre\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nIn an effort to make UKM students more aware of the sufferings of vagrants and the reasons for their predicaments, Prof Rohany encourages her postgraduates students taking up Psychology Counselling to become volunteers for Pertiwi Soup Kitchen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nFor some of them the programme is their first experience in doing welfare work while others have been involved in helping flood victims, poor students and other social activities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nProf \u00a0Rohany, who have been involved in social work for a long time said: \u201cOnly after we get ourselves involved do we really know the real life and sufferings of\u00a0this group of unfortunate people whom we normally take for granted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n\u201cWe also become more caring and sensitive towards other people especially the disadvantaged group and not remaining aloof in our comfort zones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nProf Rohany who was involved in helping flood victims since her school days in the 60\u2019s in Kelantan said we could not understand and may not know the sub-cultures of other people until we mix with them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus_News_Picture\/gelandangan3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus_News_Picture\/gelandangan4.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil then we can only\u00a0assume that their values are the same as ours when in fact they are entirely different. I am sure after meeting and helping the vagrants my postgraduate students will be more sympathetic towards them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nThe Faculty of Social Science and Humanities have recently set up its Graduate Social Club to get more students to participate and be involved in outreach activities. President of the Club, Major Mohamed Rosly Darasid, 41, said it also helped students and lecturers overcome some of their problems as well as organising social functions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nOne of their outreach programmes is becoming volunteers for the Pertiwi Soup Kitchen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nOne of the volunteers, Muhammad Adnan Abdullah, 45, who hopes to finish his study within a few months have been involved in social work since 2003 when he helped poor students and Muslim coverts in his village in Kuala Pilah.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus_News_Picture\/gelandangan2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>He went to help the Pertiwi Soup Kitchen run by Puan Munirah Abdul Hamid, together with other students including Rabiah Abd Latif, 23, Hafizah Azlan, 25 \u00a0Lim Hooi Shan, 23; Norizan Hassan, 24, Sharifah Azliza Syed Alwi, 25, and Chang Wei Hsien, 24.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nAdnan who is pursuing his Master\u2019s degree said his involvement helped to improve his knowledge and work at Yayasan Kasih Sayang Negeri Sembilan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nA businessman, he hopes to duplicate the work of Pertiwi Soup Kitchen to help wayward youths in his village. \u201cDistributing food may be the first step before we can get to know and understand the needs of such youths to be able to guide them later,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Icon\/ukmnewsportal.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2010 10:51 By Abdul Ghani Nasir Pix by Saliman Leman BANGI, 16 \u00a0Nov. 2010 \u2013\u00a0Sleeping on the<a class=\"tukm-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2010\/november-2010\/ukm-psychology-counseling-students-reach-out-to-kls-vagrants\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9928,"parent":1416,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9927","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9929,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9927\/revisions\/9929"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}