Fatimah inspects the progress of the renovation work at Maksak Sibu House.
SIBU (July 15): Renovation work on the temporary transit centre (TTG) for the homeless at Maksak Sibu House in Jalan Sanyan will be completed by Sept 30.
Minister of Welfare, Community Well-being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said once completed, all facilities and equipment would be moved to the centre in October.
At the moment, the renovation work is 54 per cent completed.
Among facilities provided by the centre are hostel rooms for women and men, a dining hall, a multipurpose hall, toilets, bathrooms for men and women, consultancy room, social enterprise space and health checkup room.
“We are going to have a car wash service there as well. We picked car wash service because this is a very strategic place. We shall look into other social enterprises for the residents to be involved in so that they can be independent.
“They can live a dignified existence, good for self-esteem, no need to beg for food,” she told reporters during her visit to Maksak Sibu House yesterday.
She said this would be the first TTG in the state and Shan Xin Charity Association of Malaysia (Sibu branch) had been the anchor to manage the centre.
She hoped this would be a success in order to reduce the number of homeless people in Sibu and the state.
“TTG Sibu might be different from TTG Miri or Bintulu or Kuching because of different environment and culture,” she said, adding that Sarawak had approved the establishment of TTGs in Kuching, Miri, and Bintulu under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
Its concept is to provide a place for the homeless to clean up, have at least one meal a day, and a place to sleep at night.
She also said that Shan Xin Charity Association of Malaysia here would do proper record and give training to the homeless for them to be independent.