Charity Food Fair at Sri Lanka Temple, Sentul

In supporting the charity programs conducted by Sri Lanka Temple, Sentul, we participated in their Charity Food Fair in the temple's compound on 9/12/2012.

We sponsored and operated a drink and food stall, which we sold taufufah, soya drink, leongfun, tomyam beehoon and biscuits. Sadhu to Sis. Shirley Teh for sponsoring about 40 tins of biscuits.

Our stall managed to collect RM1,303 worth of coupons. Saddhu to all members and friends who had participated in the Charity Sales: Bro.Wong Ong, Bro.Koy Chow Huat, Sis.Selina Lim, Sis. Thum Ngit Fong, Sis. Chu Ah Leng, Sis. Chan Kwai Ying, Sis. Sally Teh, Mdm Lim Saw Bee (Bro. Koy's mother), Sis. Shirley Teh and her husband.

Ipoh Charity/Religious Charity Trip 2012

Our annual Ipoh charity/religious trip for 2012 was scheduled on 1 - 2 December 2012 to enable BISDS teachers to participate. The trip was fully booked.

Our program was similar to last year except we visited the Bao En Shi Anning Old Folk Home instead of Jelapang Old Folk Home.

On 1/12/2012, our bus couldn't leave for Temoh on time as we were delayed by a participant who couldn't make it to Buddhist Maha Vihara on time. We left without her eventually as we were one hour behind time. As the result of this, we missed the lunch dana offering ceremony. After the lunch dana, we had a very inspiring and educational Dhamma Q&A session with Bhante Hye.

We donated RM1,000 towards the Sangha Fund for Vihara Buddha Gotama.

A dhamma Q&A session with Bhante Hye

After lunch at Kampar, we visited Batu Gajah Handicapped Children Welfare Home and Pusat Jagaan Yayasan Latihan Insan Istimewa in Pasir Putih. We donated RM1,000 each to the these two homes.

Members interacted and showing affection to the children at Pusat Jagaan Yayasan Latihan Insan Istimewa

We were in happy mood after the charity work during the day.After dinner, our happy moods were elevated further by a dhamma talk about happiness by Dato' Ang Choo Hong.

We ended the night with a sing together session with our host. The session  was superb in bringing us closer together.

On the following day (2/12/2012), we visited two welfare homes and two monasteries,

(a) Anning Old Folks and Orphanage Home

(b) Pertubuhan Jagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Setia

(c) Dhammapiti Forest Monastery

(d) Sukhavana Forest Monastery

We donated RM1,000 each towards the Welfare Homes and RM500 each towards the monasteries.

Annning Old Folks and Orphanage Home is located at Lot 157366, off Jln Ampang Baru 6, Ampang Baru New Village, 31350 Ipoh, Perak. The Old Folks Home was founded by Master Kong Chan (a Mahayanist Buddhist Monk) in 2012 and the orphanage was established in January 2009. The new building for the home was completed in June 2011 and is now known as Bao En Shi (报恩寺). It currently has 49 old folks and 37 children.

The home is well equipped with various nursing care and and physio-therapy equipments.

Photograph with the residents of the old folk home

Distributing stationary to the children at the Anning Orphanage Home.

A scenic view taken from the first floor of Bao En Shi

Group photograph at the entrance of Bao En Shi

Group photograph at the entrance of Dhammapiti Forest Monastery.

Attending Opening Ceremony of Lay Quarter and New Dining Hall at Vihara Buddha Gotama

On 19 August 2012, we organised a trip to Vihara Buddha Gotama, Temoh to attend the opening ceremony of lay quarters and new dining hall.

The trip was very well received. It was participated by 43 members and friends. We charged RM50 (without travel insurance) or RM60 (with travel insurance) per participant. After deducting bus rental and travel insurance, the balance of RM1,156 was fully donated towards the cost of wooden flooring for the lay quarters. Welfare Section also donated RM1,000 towards the Sangha Fund.

Bhante Dhammavuddho's preceptor, Phra Khru Watchara Thamvirot cut the ribbon to officiate the opening of the lay quarters and the new dining hall.

Sanghikadana ceremony at the old dining hall.

We had an audience with Bhante Dhammavuddho before bidding farewell to him.

On our way back to KL, we spent an hour of wonderful relaxing time at the Lata Kinjang waterfall.

The Temple of Fine Art Food, Fun and Cultural Carnival 2012

In response to the Temple of Fine Arts' request, we sponsored and operated a taufufa, soya milk, & cincau drink stall at their Food, Fun and Cultural Carnival 2012 on 19 & 20 May 2012.

The proceeds from the Food and Fun Fair went towards the setting up of their Sivshanta Dialysis Centre, which is located at 128, Jln Berhala, Kuala Lumpur.

Our effort on these two days raised about RM3,000.

Wesak 2012

Wesak Eve and Wesak Day are our fundraising days. Close to 40% of our welfare fund are raised during these two days.


Like our practice in the past Wesak Day, we operated an exhibition stall and a food stall inside and outside the Buddhist Maha Vihara during Wesak Eve and Wesak Day this year to raise fund for our charitable activities. 


At the exhibition stall, we put up a small photograph exhibition to inform the public of our welfare programmes.  We also distributed free dhamma books and sold some merchandise such as towels, umbrella, soft toys, ceramic pottery and gift sets.

At the food stall, we sold a variety of vegetarian food, nasi lemak, pumpkin dessert, leongfun, etc. Sales was not encouraging on the Wesak Eve but we had a brisk business on Wesak Day. Everything was sold out at 4pm.

A big sadhu to all our friends and regular supporters who have helped us in the fund raising drive on these two days. May you be blessed with happiness, good health and all the best things in life.

Charity on Boxing Day

Our last welfare programme for year 2011 was the visits two welfare homes, i.e. Pusat Jagaan Beribuan Kasih  and Home for Special People, Cheras in Kajang on 26 December 2011. It was participated by 18 members and friends.

Our first stop was at Pusat Jagaan Beribuan Kasih, which is located at No. 3, Lot 1547, Belakang Taman Bangi, Jln Reko, 43000 Kajang.  It was our second visit to the home for 2011. It has 22 children and 16 senior citizens. We found out that it has recently accepted three young Indian siblings whose father had passed away lately as their mother was unable to support them.  We were also happy to learn that MAXIS had assisted them to raise RM10k to settle the balance of the purchase price for the current premise. They finally got a place to call their own.

Apart from groceries such as rice, cooking oil, milo, potatoes, onions, biscuits, etc, we also donated RM500 for their operating expenses.

 Group photograph with the children

Some of the children in Pusat Jagaan Beribuan Kasih

Next we visited Home for Special People Cheras, which is located No. 35, Jln Rakan 11, Taman Rakan Cheras, 43000 Kajang. It was also our second visit for this Home for 2011.  It has 14 children with various disabilities, such as down syndrome, asperger syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, spastic etc. We were surprised to find out that one of the girls is a normal kid.  Her father, a Malaysian,  had already passed away.  Her mother, who is a Chinese citizen, was deported back to China as she had entered Malaysia illegally. The poor girl is rendered stateless due to her parent's marriage was not properly registered.

We donated some groceries and RM500 to the Home.

Ipoh Charity/Religious Trip 2011

This year, our annual trip to Ipoh was scheduled on 19 - 20 November 2011. It's encouraging that we received full participation of 44 members (i.e. a full busload!!).

First and foremost, before reporting this trip, I would like to say a big sadhu to Ipoh Buddhist Dhamma Association, particularly Bro. Fong Chin Onn who helped us to plan our programme in Ipoh, book lunch and dinner from restaurants in Kampar and Ipoh, and led us to the welfare homes and two monasteries in Ipoh.

On 19/11/2011, our bus departed from Buddhist Maha Vihara at around 8:45am and we reached Vihara Buddha Gotama, Temoh at around 11:00am, which was on time for us to participate in the lunch dana offering to the Sangha.

Offering dana to Bhate Hye by Bro. Dennis

Offering dana to Bhante Hye by Bro. Lau

As we were going to have our lunch in Kampar, we partook some fruits and kuihs only.

Bhante Hye conducted a lively Q&A dhamma session after the lunch dana, which gave us a better understanding of the delicate aspect of the Buddha Dhamma. Many members took the opportunity to clear their doubts about dhamma so much so that extra time had to be allocated for asking the final question.

We bid farewell to Bhante Hye at around 12:45pm and proceed to Kampar for lunch. Our next stop was Batu Gajah Handicapped Children Welfare Home.

The Home has 40 inmates with various mental and physical disabilities. It is now more systematically organised. For the first time, we were issued receipt for the groceries we donated. We also donated RM1,000 to the home.

The administrator who joined the Home few months ago told me that she was very happy to work there. She said the "children" were nurtured with a spirit of helping each other. The physically abled children always help to carry (or push the wheelchair of) the disabled one whenever required. The children were quite happy to see us around, particularly this young lady and this young man (in the picture below) who sang along with Sis. Choo.

However, this boy was a bit shy to receive attention from so many uncles and aunties.

We took a group picture for memory before saying bye bye to all the children.

Our journey to Pusat Jagaan Yayasan Latihan Insan Istimewa (a handicapped children welfare home) in Pasir Putih was hampered by heavy rain. Certain part of the road leading to our destination was inundated and was inaccessible to light vehicles causing massive traffic jam. However, we were still able reach the welfare home as scheduled at around 4:15pm. The rain stopped when we reached there. How lucky were we!!!

The home takes care of 35 "children" with various physical and mental disabilities.

Sis. Sumitra distributed sweets and titbits to the children.
Sis. Sally's motherly touch was so soothing !

Bro. Koy cheered up the young boy on wheel chair.

We left the Home at around 5:00pm.

After dinner, we attended a fellowship gathering at the Ipoh Buddhist Dhamma Association Centre in Canning Garden until 10:00pm.

Welcoming speech by the IBDA's President, Bro. Kiang.

A happy moment. Performance by Bro. Pheng, Sis. Khoo (from Ipoh Buddhist Dhamma Association), Sis. Thum & Sis. Lily Cheah.

The next morning, we visited the Jelapang Old Folk Home and Loyal Handicapped Children Welfare Home in Silibin.

The Jelapang Old Folk Home has about 50 old folks. It was conferred with the "Excellent Organisation Award" by the Registrar of Society in 2008. We donated RM1,000 to the Home and also distributed angpows to the old folks.

Bro. Dr. Koh and Sis. Lily Cheah distributed angpows to the old folks at Jalapang Old Folk Home

This uncle (above) is the best singer in Jelapang Old Folk Home.

Sis. Lily Cheah (left) and Bro. Pheng (right) rendered a song to entertain the old folks

The Loyal Handicapped Children Welfare Home is located at No. 17, Lorong Silibin, 30100 Ipoh. It was was established in 1999 and has about 39 "children" of various severe disabilities. We donated RM1,000 and some groceries to the home.

Group photograph with the children at Loyal Handicapped Children Welfare Home. The man in in purple batik shirt is the founder and care taker of  this home.

Next we visited two monasteries, Dhammapiti Meditation Monastery in Gunung Lang and Sukhavana Meditation Monastery in Bercham.

Listening to dhamma talk by Ven.  Thitavijjo Dhammapiti Meditation Monastery.

Bro. Koh offered robe to Ven. Thitavijjo

Sukhavana Meditation Monastery is housed in a cave in Bercham next to Huat Thien Keong Chinese Temple. Here are some snapshots of the monastery.