PERDA Allocates RM49,500 For School Supply Aid

TASEK GELUGOR, Feb 7 (Bernama) -- Penang Regional Development Authority (PERDA) has allocated RM49,000 to 330 primary school pupils in Penang to help them buy school supplies and reduce the financial burden of their families through the authority’s back-to-school aid programme.

PERDA chairman Datuk Shaik Hussein Mydin said that each student would receive a voucher worth RM150 to buy school supplies under the programme, which was part of PERDA’s activities focused on helping the poor, single mothers and the lower income group where the authority operates.

"We provide vouchers for them to buy what they need for school and I will also donate some personally about RM50 in cash for each recipient,” he said after presenting the vouchers to the students at Dewan Muhibah Merbau Kudung today.

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He said that the allocation would not be able to solve the financial difficulties faced by families with many school-going children but would at least help them with the burden they faced.

The mother of a recipient, housewife Norazura Rosidi, 43, said that the youngest of her four children received the aid today and she was thankful to PERDA for the assistance.

"All my children are school-going, the eldest is 23, second 21 and are in university while the two others are in Form Three and Standard Six, so the aid I receive today on behalf of Puteri Hana Saffiya, 12, really helps,” she told Bernama today.

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Fellow parent, housewife Nor Safiza Ahmad Suffian, 35, shared that her husband works as a lorry driver and that this year, three of five of her children were schooling, which would place a financial burden on the family and expressed her gratitude that her eldest Izz Al'uqayla Mohd Fitri, eight, received the aid today.

“We have to save up to buy what they need and will spend on the younger two who are in Standard One and kindergarten… I’m very thankful for the aid from PERDA,” she said.

-- BERNAMA