Nayagam back to help abused children

PETALING JAYA: Former Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam (pix) has returned to pursuing his first love — helping children who have been neglected or abused.
Nayagam has launched the Suriana Welfare Society, which was formed last year as a watchdog to detect potential child abuse cases in the community.
Nayagam carved a name for himself with charity work when he launched Shelter, an orphanage, with seven friends in 1981 to help abused, abandoned and neglected children.
Nayagam left Shelter when he started his six-year stint with Suhakam.
He said Suriana, which stands for Suara Rintihan Kanak-Kanak (Voices of the Voiceless), was still a work in progress.
"Our success with the children is yet to be determined as we are fairly new," he said, adding they were looking for child specialists and volunteers to help with their work at the home.
He said as part of their work to help abused children they had established working relations with the joint-management committee of the Desa Mentari flats, which was their current base.
"For now, we are working with the Desa Mentari joint management committee. But in the long run we want to expand to the rest of the Klang Valley," he said in a recent interview here, adding that residents were supportive of their work.
Nayagam said they can be reached through their Facebook page.
He said they reached out to the children in the housing areas through their various musical and education programmes.
"We know if a child has been abused by the way they handle the instruments. Some tended to vent their anger and frustration by the way they played the instrument and this is one sign that something is not right with the child," he said.
He explained that the activity was among several methods used to determine and detect child abuse.
Apart from child abuse, Nayagam said Suriana also tried to help single mothers who had financial difficulty.
"Cases that we've received thus far include single mothers who need financial and medical assistance … (this is) because urban poverty is one of the reasons of child abuse," he said.
Suriana executive director Scott Wong said they have been invited by the police to assist the Federal Sexual, Women and Child Investigation (D11).
"This allows us to give more input on child protection which we have long fought for," he said, adding that they needed about RM15,000 monthly to pay its staff and fund its programmes.