About This Project

Located on the north coast of Borneo Island, Brunei Darussalam is a small nation surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea. Although the kingdom is able to provide an excellent standard of living for its citizens, however poverty in Brunei is not absent but rather minimised. As of June 2018, it has been recorded that the total population of Brunei is 433,852 out of which 5.04 percent of the people were living in scarcity. While the country’s poverty line is not officially identified, the government nevertheless has taken few steps to tackle this problem such as forming a Poverty Issue Special Committee. Likewise, there are several official welfare assistance for low income families governed by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (KKBS) via Community Development Department (JAPEM) and Brunei Darussalam Islamic Religious Council (MUIB). On the other hand, local NGOs also play an important role in aiding the poor by organising a number of relief projects thus responding to His Majesty the Sultan’s titah:

“Budaya sukaralewan ini sangat elok, kerana ia bukan saja dapat meningkatkan perpaduan dan persefahaman, malah juga boleh mendatangkan pahala. Beta berharap semua langkah-langkah yang berkebajikan ini akan terus diperkasakan sehingga mencapai kecemerlangannya.”

Maybank Ramadhan Relief project made it possible for WeCare to assist vulnerable families in Brunei throughout the month of Ramadhan. This project targets a total of 100 asnaf households in Belait, Brunei-Muara and Tutong districts. WeCare will work closely with several parties in selecting the underprivileged hence it is hoped that this project will lessen the burden of those in need.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• To meet the Head of Village (Ketua Kampung) and request for the list of poor asnaf families.
• Assess houses according to the list provided.
• Pack the items and attach the Ramdhan Relief stickers on the nonwoven bags provided by Maybank prior to the distribution.

BENEFICIARIES OF THE PROJECT

100 poor asnaf recipients.

Asnaf: Single mothers, orphans, senior citizens, critically ill patients, disabled people, homeless & other eligible beneficiaries under asnaf zakat.

PROJECT BUDGET

B$ 6,666.00 (RM 20,161.32)

CONCLUSION

WeCare managed to distribute the entire food packs according to the targeted number of families within the allocated time frame as planned. Likewise, it is important for humanitarian aid NGOs to keep close contacts with certain authorities such as Ketua Kampung, JAPEM and MUIB to obtain various information for upcoming relief project.

Although there were fewer response from Kindness Krew volunteers, WeCare members have done a remarkable job with the distribution causing the team to further strengthen their affiliation and to ‘break the ice’ with each other.

The beneficiaries and WeCare organisation were sincerely grateful for the assistance given by Maybank and Islamic Relief Malaysia. WeCare would be pleased to collaborate once again with a similar project in the future however targeting a large number of vulnerable households.