WITH expenses reaching some RM17,000 a month, the Persatuan Kebajikan Insan Istimewa Melaka has been struggling to make ends meet since early this year.

The NGO, which runs the Joy Workshop, a training centre for young adults with learning difficulties in Malacca, has been hit so bad by the rising cost of food, that its 45 students have had to do without little "luxuries" such as buns or cakes for tea.

"It's a struggle trying to stretch our limited budget. I used to be able to serve fresh fish and chicken for the students at least twice a week. Now I serve more canned sardines and eggs," said Insan director Parames Anand.

Even the regular farmers who used to donate fresh vegetables every week have reduced their supply by more than half.

"Now I have to buy an additional 2kg of vegetables every week to serve my students and I am forced to keep the meals simple and reduce the portions."
Parames' students are served breakfast, lunch and tea during their eight-hour session at the centre.

Individuals and some bakeries that used to donate cakes and buns for tea have also stopped their supply since the beginning of the year.

"Because our regular donors have also been cutting back on their contributions, our funds were down to just a few thousand ringgit in March.

"We wrote letters of appeal to several corporations and some responded positively. But even that is not enough to keep us going becaue the price of food and fuel has sky-rocketed and our funds are dwindling fast."

As Parames uses a van to ferry most of her students to and from home, her petrol bill of about RM50 a week has doubled.

"It's getting more and more difficult to make ends meet and we dread to think what will happen if the price of goods keep escalating and the donations stop coming."

Donations to the Pure Life Society in Puchong have also dropped by almost half since last month, said its president Datin Paduka Mother Mangalam Iyer.

"For instance, we used to receive a lot of bags of rice. And there was always a surplus that we could channel to eight really poor families through our outreach programme.

"But we don't get them anymore and because there has been a marked reduction in donations, we also have to reduce the amount of provisions we give to these poor families."

The society has been appealing for donations by word of mouth through their small number of regular donors.

"We just pray and hope that things will turn for the better. The general public also has their share of suffering during these trying times and we will all have to economise."

Dunstan Dominic, president of the National Office of St Vincent de Paul, which has 60 branches to feed the poor throughout the country, faces the same problem.

The drop in donations is a result of usually generous people themselves trying to cope with the high prices.



"However, we hope this situation is temporary and people will start donating again. At the moment, we are still able to manage. But it's too early to say what will happen in the future."