00:00Assalamualaikum and hallo everyone.
00:02My name is Elia Adnan and I'm one of the trustees of OffenCare Foundation.
00:08Assalamualaikum, good afternoon.
00:10My name is Noraysha Osman and I'm also from OffenCare.
00:15We are one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2025.
00:30While many believe that children's homes offer a safe haven, the truth is often far more heartbreaking.
00:41For years, countless children have grown up in institutions waiting, hoping and longing for families that never came.
00:50This painful reality moved the late Dato' Adnan Muhammad Tahir to take action.
00:54Out of that compassion, the OffenCare Foundation, a Malaysian non-profit organisation, was born in 2009.
01:04Adnan's wife, Datin Elia Lim Abdullah, who is also a trustee of OffenCare, said her husband had always been drawn to charitable work
01:12and his visits to children's homes in the early 2000s inspired him to focus on helping abandoned children.
01:19And what really got him to start OffenCare was probably based on the many visits that both of us went,
01:31especially during Ramadan.
01:34And we would go and visit these homes, children's homes.
01:38And for me, it was quite an eye-opener.
01:40For him, it was like basically confirming what he believed in,
01:45and that the children in all these orphanages, they needed a better place.
01:51In its early days, OffenCare relied on personal funds from Elia and her husband,
01:56as well as contributions from other trustees.
01:59As public awareness grew, donations began to come in.
02:04Their first headquarters and baby hatch were later opened in Kampung Tungkus Lango,
02:09marking the start of Malaysia's first baby hatch initiative.
02:13The hatch, a small temperature-controlled compartment built into the wall of their centre,
02:19allows mothers in crisis to leave their babies anonymously and safely,
02:24instead of abandoning them by the roadside.
02:27When the babies are placed in the hatch, we have to report them to the police,
02:35and also they have to be brought to the hospitals for check-up.
02:38After they've been declared healthy and all that,
02:41then there's a process where we have to bring them to makamah kanak-kanak,
02:44so that temporary custody will be given to the adoptive parents.
02:49The adoptive parents being interviewed by us to see if they meet the criteria and all that.
02:55OftenCare has since expanded its reach across Malaysia with offices in Johor Bahru and Sungai Petani,
03:02as well as six additional hatches in collaboration with KPJ Hospitals.
03:07To date, the foundation has helped 702 babies,
03:12with about 20% reunited with their birth families and 70% adopted into new homes.
03:18Beyond baby hatches, the foundation also provides shelter for walking pregnant mothers in crisis.
03:26But OftenCare's work does not stop there.
03:29The foundation also reaches out to older children who have spent years in institutional care.
03:35Rumah kanak-kanak is the same as orphanages, but pusat kanak-kanak is meant to be temporary.
03:41From this group and from the other group, there will be children who can be reintegrated.
03:47We have actually been collaborating with government to say that,
03:51look, children must not be institutionalised, no matter for what reason.
03:58To date, OftenCare has helped 31 older children find adoptive families
04:02and 86 others reintegrate with their biological families.
04:06Reintegration only happens when parents are financially and emotionally ready
04:12and when both parent and child agree to it.
04:16All prospective adoptive parents are required to attend training and counselling sessions before adoption.
04:23Firstly, we make them aware of what is about adopting a baby or an older child.
04:30We tell them, look, you need to look into counselling, child psychological care
04:36and you need to be very careful about their behaviour.
04:40Like, you may need to have occupational therapists.
04:43Some of them can suffer from, like, they don't know what to do, like, in a home
04:48because they have never been in a home.
04:50They don't even know how to call the parent, the mother.
04:54So we always tell them, look, don't force it.
05:00Beyond its direct programmes, the foundation also focuses heavily on prevention,
05:06reaching out to low-income communities to raise awareness
05:09on how to prevent parents from abandoning their children.
05:13So we are approaching these PPR flats as an awareness by educating them
05:20about the harms of separating a child from a mum.
05:24Poverty cannot be a good reason to put your child in a private home or a government home.
05:31We talk to them.
05:32We say, don't do that.
05:34If you have problems, let us help you.
05:38Today, the foundation stands as a model for child welfare work in Malaysia.
05:43Its tireless efforts have earned national recognition,
05:46including being named to one of this year's Star Golden Hearts Award winners.
05:51We hope with the expansion of more baby hatches,
05:55we can reach out to more babies being saved
05:58and also supporting birth mothers who not only parent their children,
06:05but those who have had to make an adoption plan.
06:07We hope to support them also.
06:09We are very honoured to have been given the award
06:13and bottom line is each child should have a family,
06:16whether it's a baby or it's from the orphanage.
06:19We hope to support them.
06:20We hope to support them.
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