A Conversation

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Student 1: My father is too old for work. I am the only child so I am not so much a burden for my family.
Student 2: My father refuses to work.
Me: Is he?
Student 2: (silence) He works, sometimes.
Me: So your mother is the breadwinner of your family? What does she do?
Student 2: She sells kuih in a nearby wet market.
Me: Oh. She must be making a lot of money then.
Student 2: Just enough to keep the business going.
Me: Okay. Do you have brothers and sisters?
Student 2: I am the eldest of 4 and the youngest is 6.
Me: Don't you get any scholarship?
Student 2: I have one from the Kebajikan Masyarakat. They give me RM300 every month.
Me: Oh. Okay, that's a lot of help.
Student 2: My family uses it to pay the house rent and utilities.
Me: (speechless)

Let's fight poverty in our community first. Whilst we might be spending RM100 for another pair of heels, there might be a family who need the same amount of money to buy sacks of rice, sugar, salt and maybe a dish enough to feed the whole family for a week.  




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