Rumah Seri Kenangan Kuching residents will finally have a place to call their own this year after a delay in the construction of the home’s new building.

Built in 1932, the old building of the home which provides shelter for the aged was demolished in 2012 and most of the residents were temporarily put up at the Samarahan Rehabilitation Centre in the meantime.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said that the project was expected to be completed last year but due to problems faced by the project’s initial contractor, the project was delayed.

She also revealed that the Public Works Department (JKR) had since stepped in to solve the problem and Rumah Seri Kenangan residents would be able to move into the  new building this year.

“The Rumah Seri Kenangan new building construction was divided into two phases, namely Phase One and Phase Two. Once Phase One is completed this year, the home’s residents can move there,” she added.

Before the start of the project in 2012, the initial cost of the building was believed to be around RM12 million. Located at KM20 Jalan Kuching-Serian, the new building is expected to be equipped with new facilities designed to suit the needs of residents.

“We expect the new building to have an element of therapy for the residents. We hope to provide the residents with space for activities at the new building such as a gardening space, place for religious activities (according to their respective faiths), cafe, library and many more,” said Fatimah.

Rumah Seri Kenangan was established for the sole purpose of providing care and protection for disadvantaged senior citizens so that they could spend their remaining years in a friendly and caring environment rather than in isolation and neglect.

The residents comprise the elderly who are poor, destitute, with no next-of-kin, abandoned, neglected and victims of domestic violence or broken homes.

Apart from the Rumah Seri Kenangan in Kuching, the Rumah Seri Kenangan in Sibu is also currently being renovated, and is in the schematic drawing stages, according to Fatimah.

Sarawak has two Rumah Seri Kenangan; the one in Kuching currently has 77 residents while the one in Sibu currently houses 46 residents. Fatimah was the guest-of-honour for a charity event held at the Samarahan Rehabilitation Centre.

During the event, she witnessed the Batu Kawa Voon’s Xian De Tang Temple hand over 30 cardiac tables to the Rumah Seri Kenangan in Kuching. The temple’s chairman Voon Jan Ham handed over the tables to State Welfare Department director Abang Shamshudin Abang Seruji and Rumah Seri Kenangan Kuching principal Dariel Thiong.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by Matthew Umpang

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