Welfare Dept will help find new place for Society of Caring Hands Ipoh
IPOH: The Perak Welfare Department will assist the Society of Caring Hands Ipoh in getting a new place if the existing building which housed its welfare home at Taman Lim here is returned to the owner.
State Women Development, Social Welfare, Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Rusnah Kassim said the owner of the building had filed a court case to claim ownership of the premises.
"If the court rules that the Society of Caring Hands Ipoh is not the owner, then children at the home will have to vacate the building.
"The Welfare Department will help get a new house or place and ensure it operates legally. So, parents and the Society of Caring Hands Ipoh do not have to worry about the children," she added.
She told this to reporters after handing over school aid to 200 students from five Tamil schools in Buntong here today.
However, she said, pending the outcome of the court case, the Kakum Karangal welfare would operate as usual.
On a claim that children at the welfare home were being abused, Rusnah said she would leave the matter for the police to investigate.
According to a newspaper report, the society had lodged two police reports over complaints of children at the welfare home being physically and emotionally abused for years.
It said the alleged abuse was first discovered after a child psychologist from Singapore noticed various warning signs of abuse suffered by the children while conducting a study at the home and had later sent a full report to the society's committee.
The children claimed that they were whipped on their soles and palms for the tiniest mistakes. They also complained of having been put in a cage with a dog, thrown around, deprived of food for hours, besides being stripped and beaten on their buttocks.
Medical examinations were then carried out by Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in Ipoh, and the results corroborated the children's complaints of persistent physical and emotional abuse. — Bernama