BY JAMES WONG & GILLVEN MIXCOLLIN
KUCHING: The Home Ministry (KDN) has approved all citizenship applications for seven abandoned children submitted through the Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development (KWPK).
KWPK Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah expressed gratitude to Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail for approving the citizenship applications for these orphans.
“Thus far, four out of seven children have received certificates, while three are still waiting for their certificates.
“We appreciate the KDN for considering our cases as these abandoned children require special consideration regarding citizenships as we have no way of tracing their parents and citizenship,” she said.
She said these during the launching ceremony of Plaza Merdeka’s ‘Meriahnya Aidilfitri’ here last night (Mar 23).
Moreover, Fatimah highlighted that granting citizenship would make it easier for prospective adoptive parents to step forward, as the children’s citizenship status is now confirmed, paving the way for them to find loving homes.
“We believe that a loving home environment is better than institutional care.
“Our goal is for these children to be adopted by caring parents, especially those without children, to provide them with love, welfare, education, and proper care,” she added.
On Monday (Mar 18), Datuk Seri Fatimah had requested special consideration for automatic Malaysian citizenship to be given to children under the care of Social Welfare Department institutions.
She highlighted the challenges in identifying the biological parents of these abandoned children and stressed that an automatic citizenship process would ease the burden on adoptive parents seeking citizenship for them.
Meanwhile, as part of Plaza Merdeka’s ‘Meriahnya Aidilfitri’, it had collaborated with Baby Shop and the Waterfront Hotel to host a special event where children had the opportunity to shop at Baby Shop and then enjoy breaking fast at the Waterfront Hotel.
The event also included a donation presentation of RM10,000 from Plaza Merdeka to the Toh Puan Hajah Norkiah Children’s Home in Kuching.
Also present were Kuching North mayor Hilmy Othman, Plaza Merdeka Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Steve Ng and executive director Datin Anriwa Wong Cordero, and Head of the Puan Hajah Norkiah Children’s Home Mohamad Iskandar Mohammed Tudin.
