Kechara Soup Kitchen helps to reunite a homeless with her sister-in-law
Today, Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK) is mentioned in The Star newspaper again for helping to reunite a woman with her sister-in-law who has been living on the streets for 3 years. I’m very happy to hear that another homeless is off the street through KSK.
Sis-in-law Found After 25 Years
Thursday July 22, 2010 | By JOSHUA FOONG and SHAUN HO | newsdesk@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: After three years of living on the streets, Jit Kaur had an emotional reunion with her sister-in-law, whom she had not seen in more than 25 years.
The 63-year-old former drug addict, who has been sleeping along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, was evidently surprised when she was approached by the “stranger” who offered to take her home.
When the relative, Anita Kaur, produced an old photograph of Jit with her soldier husband, an overwhelmed Jit was struck speechless.
Dietician Anita Kaur persuading her sister-in-law Jit Kaur to return home with her Wednesday after 25 years of being separated from the family. The women had an emotional reunion Wednesday after Jit, 63, was approached by Anita, who went in search of her after reading a story about her long-lost relative living on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. – AZHAR MAHFOF / The Star.
Emotions aside, Jit was initially adamant to stick to her current way of life, but after much persuasion from her sister-in-law, she relented – she agreed to give Anita a chance by agreeing to spend the night with her at a hotel and take care of her affairs later.
Before the much-anticipated meeting, an excited Anita, who said Jit had been shunned by the family for years, said: “I wish that our encounter will be filled with forgiveness.”
“Although I am excited to meet her after 25 years, I hope time has healed our scars and we can look to building a happier future,” she added.
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/SistersReuniteAfter25Years.mp4
Jit was thankful for the reunion but admitted that it would be hard to adjust to a “normal lifestyle” after living on the streets for so long.
“Thanks to The Star and Kechara, I have met my family.
“But, it is hard for me to just leave,” she said adding that she had “some things to do” before following her sister-in-law.
Jit’s story, which was featured in The Star on Monday, caught the attention of Anita from Bukit Beruntung, who contacted the daily for help to locate her relative.
Arrangements were made and a team from The Star and Kechara Soup Kitchen took Anita to look for Jit.
Reunited: Jit with Anita (background) on her way to a happy reunion Wednesday.
It was fortunate that she had used her real name when interviewed by The Star early last month, as KSK coordinators Justin Cheah and Jace Chong knew her by another name, Habiba.
The team met with Anita, a dietician, at KL Sentral at 8pm and showed her a recent picture taken of Jit, and Anita immediately recognised her.
On the way to finding her long-lost relative, Anita admitted that relations between both their families became strained soon after Jit married Anita’s brother.
Dear everyone, I am so proud of my KSK team to help the homeless in such a manner. Wonderful. This is what I want KECHARA TO DO FOR SOCIETY. I VERY MUCH WANT KECHARA TO SERVE SOCIETY AND DO MUCH MORE IN THE FUTURE. Warms my heart so much to see this. Beautiful story. I wish them luck from the bottom of my heart.
Tsem Rinpoche
Update 23 July 2010
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There is said that instead of giving food to the poor, we should teach them the way of finding food. Kechara Soup Kitchen did a great job in this! KSK not only gives food, KSK also gives hope to the homeless.
Homeless people always been discriminated by the society and no one will listen to them. Because people have wrong idea about them. In fact KSK shows us that not all the homeless are ‘bad’, but some of them really need help and care from the society in order to get back their normal life. Homeless people are the ones who lost their way out from the hard situation. It is not a big deal if they don’t harm people. But even in our society, wealthy people do bring harm to others too.
Thanks to Kechara Soup Kitchen for all the hard works. 🙂
Touching~~~~
Holy smokes. Jit Kaur(Habiba) looks so good now. What a transformation. I truly hope she will adapt to living off the streets and be happily united with her family. She has always been rather positive whenever I spoke to her at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
It is very touching to see Jit Kaur and Anita Kaur affectionate in the picture taken above. All the best Jit Kaur! Thank you Anita for having the courage and a big heart to come out and accept Jit Kaur back into your life.
I rejoice in your good work KSK! KSK Boleh! Keep it up.
When are down and out and living on the streets.They need more than food.the homeless need a chanceto get back on their feet and be independent and have their own self esteem. The sick needs medical care, medications and sometimes to be hospitalised.People like Jitwho has been living out on the street for three years and who has relatives needs to be reunited with her family. KSK has done just that. And helped get another homeless off the street to be reunited back with her family. So KSK doesnot only just feed the homeless but also provide the abovementioned services with the main aim to get them off the street and help them to get back into the mainstream of society. Syabas to KSK for agreat job well done. Of course with the help of the Star Media.Un
Love this story! KSK is not only taking care of hunger but also, friendships, putting people back on their feet through jobs, and reuniting families.
What crossed my mind when I was reading this post is that we are all interconnected. Every person out there is a mother, a daughter, a father, an aunt, a brother, a sister, a niece, a friend to someone. Everyone is a special person to someone. At such, if we were to think along these lines, we will naturally respect, gives dignity, kindness to strangers who may not be “related” to us. Would we want our sisters and aunts abused, neglected, put down by others? No! So let’s find it in our hearts treat those we come across with more kindness…
Thank you KSK and thank you Rinpoche for your vision and manifesting this beneficial, charitable outreach arm of Kechara.
Indeed a heart rending story. KSK has really grown in a few years and will no doubt grow even bigger in future. I was on one of those rounds and I can see the fantastic work that all the KSK volunteers are doing. Of course it breaks my heart to see these homeless people, some by choice but many are just being unfortunate.
Thank you Martin for your sharing. Many people, myself included, just can’t understand why are there so many people choose to live on the street. I mean Malaysia is a land of plenty, if one is willing to work it won’t be so difficult to have a roof over one’s head.
However , these homeless people want more than 3 meals and a bed. They want acceptance, understanding and emotional support from their families.
As family , we always have expectations on each other. When a member of the family can’t or won’t do what is expected of him/her, it difficult for us to forgive , accept and continue to give unconditional love and care.
It only takes a look or a word to be the last straw for someone to take to the street and become another homeless person.
With the insights shared by Martin, we will be less critical and more sympathetic towards the homeless.We have been taught to be more open minded. This should be extended to the homeless too.
It certainly is a very heartwarming real-life story we are reading of Jit’s reunion with Anita. I hope this reunion will show Jit that there are so many people out there who do care for her. Firstly, her sister-in-law Anita who wasted no time in looking for her does care for her. The Star has done an amazing job in highlighting Jit’s plight, without which Anita would not have learnt of her sister-in-law’s where-about. I think Star truly lives up to their their tagline “the people’s paper”. KSK team not only feeds the hungry, they cared enough to go all out and make this reunion possible. All these efforts combined have helped Jit get on her feet again and she even hoped that the “family” she left behind would find their families and homes again. Wow, what an inspiring story. Just this story itself thought us so much about forgiveness, compassion, selflessness, generosity and yes, peace!
Fantastic news about Kamaru – got the SMS updates already. Thank you Martin and bravo!
It is interesting but sad to hear what you have shared Martin, about how the homeless actually prefer being on the streets because there is more judgment and criticism “back in society”. Unfortunately, this is so true and hearing him say that alone is a teaching.
At the heart of every difficult situation is a suffering person, no matter how horrid or difficult they may seem to be. It is all the other baggage and expectations we bring along from our own experiences that make it so difficult to see the situation for what is really happening – that the other person is also suffering.
It is interesting that when we are doing work like this, you see the person for who they are and try to help them out of their immediate problems. There is no judgment because there is no history or baggage and you don’t know what has happened before. Whether it is meeting someone new on the streets, or even meeting someone new when they step into our Dharma classes in our nice, comfortable temple – being in a place like Kechara, you’ll always come across people with problems and difficulties and you learn to find ways to help that problem, instead of getting stuck on the whys, hows, history, baggage, perceptions, expectations.
If we can only learn to approach every situation and difficulty like this – we would resolve problems so much easier. It really is by work like KSK that we learn to open our hearts and help a person unconditionally, no matter where they have come from. This wonderful story about Jit shows us how to really let go of the past and how there can always be a new beginning, a new solution to every difficulty. I wish her and her family all the best in their reunion and starting anew to a bright and wonderful future together.
What you say is very true Martin, it’s their mind keep them on the street and what the society think as well. We need to break that thoughts and inject them with positive energy.
I got a call from Justin just now said that you were getting Kamaru Zaman off the street after he discharged from hospital, good job man!! I’ve tried to pursuit him to go back Kelantan but didnt make it. Thanks for arranging and sponsoring Kamaru to stay in a hotel these few days and he is going back to his family in Kelantan on Monday by bus. Yes, one more person off the street, yea!!
Really admire your consistent efforts in helping KSK!! Let’s do more!!
I am glad to read good news like this one and i cannot wait for the permanent soup kitchen to be operational. In future i hope we can also offer more in depth counselling and “de-briefing” sessions for our homeless friends before sending them “home”.
In one of my encounters with another of our KSK clients, i got talking with the client and was made to understand that he prefers to stay on the streets than to be at home! The reason is simple – on the streets, every other homeless person they meet is an “equal” meaning to say that at some point in the past they (well, some of them) stumbled (e.g. got into drugs or got incarcerated for a crime)and as such the homeless do not cast judgements on one another. They accept one another. Over time, they become disconnected from the mainstream society.
At “home” he said, he is reminded, judged and punished daily, albeit subtly. In other words, he is never really forgiven and the stress of that makes him prefer to be on the streets.
There are 2 sicknesses here…the first by the homeless who may have committed a wrong-doing in the past due to a weakness in character or a wrong judgement, and the second…the failure of people and society in general to show compassion and genuine forgiveness. Sad.
Congratulations to Anita for taking the initiative to reach out and never forgetting a family member. And all the best to Jit.
There are many stories out there, and many of the homeless make great teachers for us who live by grace.
It is funny how things can change and happen so fast, when you least expect it to. One minute, you may be at the comfort of your own home (in this case, the streets for Jit), and the next minute, you may be thrown out of your comfort zone to a completely new situation; fazed by a whole new uncertain environment in which you would have to adapt to. Hence the concept of impermenance.
It was just last Saturday during our KSK midnight rounds when Jit (known to me as Habiba) requested for an umbrella to protect her from the rain. I was going to purchase it before the upcoming rounds on Saturday before I stumbled upon this story. I am ecstatic for her. I sincerely hope that this would be the beginning for her to be re-introduced back into society and to lead a life away from the harshness of living on the streets. I am glad that she does not need an umbrella anymore to shield her from the spitting rain whilst she rests on the pavement. All we can look forward to is how she will adapt to living with Anita in the coming months – lets hope for the best!
Thank you Rinpoche for the guidance. Without you, Kechara would not have come about, without Kechara, KSK would not have been established. Thank you to the KSK team for the dedication in feeding and serving the needs of the homeless and urban poor. Stories like these inspires the team to continue their hard work. It brings joy and happiness for volunteers to know that they are helping in someway, even if it is just one person that has gained (though note that KSK has had numerous success stories, not just one!:) ) from KSK’s cause, it is still worth it. And last but not least, thank you to The Star for always highlighting the plight of the homeless, and continually supporting KSK. It is much appreciated. If it wasn’t for you guys, Jit’s story would not have reached Anita. The People’s Paper indeed.
What heartwarming and happy ending news! KSK not only serves food to the homeless,provides medical assistance, find jobs for the homeless but also reunite families back together.
The dedicated and devoted team has done so much to reach out to help the poor, the lost and the destitute. This sets such good example of putting compassion through action and this is what KSK is all about.
Well done to the hardworking team for bringing another family back together!!!
I am constantly amazed and humbled by the KSK team, especially Justin. Relentless dedication and sincerity to do whatever it takes to help the homeless and the poor. Through KSK, i have learned to be grateful for what i have and am today and mindful that i should not waste. Friends of mine say they have heard about KSK many times in the press and say KSK does a super job. Every resource whether it is food, medical care or just offering comfort and happiness should not be taken for granted. It is through KSK and the other departments in Kechara that we put into practice what Rinpoche has taught us. Thank you Rinpoche and KSK for not giving up and always giving hope to those who themselves may not know how to reach out.
KSK has indeed come a long way from 2006. It never ceases to amaze me and inspire me what stories KSK will share every week. There is always somehow always a happy ending despite the grim reality on the streets.
I think this is perhaps what summarises KSK best – it makes the happy endings from all the sad stories in the streets.
We may not always win, but we surely will do our part in serving the society. And that part is to keep the hope real and alive in the streets where it is most needed.
Kechara is all about Real Life Action Dharma.
Thank you, Star for always being so supportive. It is immensely helpful to have the media do their part in contributing to the causes in our city. We all can do our little part for sure. Then, together, it becomes a big difference.
Rinpoche, what will we ever do without you?
You have benefited us and so many Malaysians just by being in our lives, our country and our world.
Thanks to you, most of all. Nothing would have been possible without you, first and foremost.
With all our love, always.
What a heartwarming story! I hope Jit adjusts to living with a family again easily and that they can overcome the disagreement that saw her leading a life on the streets.
I hope this sets a precedence for further homeless people.
Well done all who were involved!
KSK is doing so much. They started with feeding the homeless…then they helped them secure jobs and a path back to living “normally”…NOW, they united a family and created an opportunity for forgiveness.
Kechara House is already doing so much to serve Malaysians. Imagine what Kechara House can do when KWPC is completed! Such happiness will not only be limited to Malaysia…it will reach many other parts of the world.
Wonderful work KSK team. Thank you for your sincere dedication and care for the those in need.
Sincere thanks to The Star as well for being a friend to Kechara and its cause.