Form Four Student Of SMK Dang Anum Picks Trash To Help Cancer Survivors
It's a dirty job but the 16-year-old girl doesn't mind doing it to help cancer survivors.
By Sadho Ram — 04 May 2015, 12:21 PM
Meet Shalini, a form four student of SMK Dang Anum. Aged 16 and a resident of Malacca, each day after school, she spends an hour collecting recyclables such as aluminium cans from garbage bins and sells them to use the money to help cancer survivors.
Shalini collecting aluminium cans and bottles around a housing area to be recycled.
Image via The Star OnlineAccording to The Star Online, by selling recyclable items picked up from the garbage cans, Shalini has become a constant donor to charitable organisations since 2011, donating RM50 to RM70 each month. It's a dirty job but she doesn't mind doing it for charity.
National Cancer Society of Malaysia’s project manager Miki Chua declared Shalini as the youngest donor who contributed regularly over the past two years. "Fifty ringgit may sound negligible but it’s significant for NCSM as it is used to carry out outreach programmes for cancer survivors in the country," Chua said yesterday.
She said not many teenagers, much less adults, would be willing to rummage through garbage bins for the sake of charity. "Shalini has been contributing RM50 a month to NCSM without fail since 2013. Previously, she was donating to several other organisations for the disabled before signing up as an NCSM donor," she added.
Speaking to The Star, Shalini said she feels absolutely no shame in doing it, even it it is at crowded areas. She considers it a noble act.
“People sometimes gawk at a schoolgirl digging through rubbish but I would just ignore them and collect any item that could be turned into money. The only time I go around rummaging garbage bins in public areas is when the collection from the school grounds is insufficient to generate the RM50 for a particular month,” she said.
thestar.com.mySpeaking about the inspiration behind the idea of using recyclables to help charities, Shalini said that it came from her late grandfather.
“He used to do the same to help estate workers who were facing financial constraints. At that time, neighbours would come and ask grandpa for monetary help, and the cash from trash was used to help them,” Shalini said.
She now has a corner outside her house where she stores the collected items before the dealers come to take them away. “If the sum is lower than RM50, my parents would top up the amount,” said Shalini.
She is eager to encourage her classmates to join her in doing good
“I guess my idea could work out as being environmentally conscious and has gained grounds among students over the years, and now they could do good with recyclables,” she added.
Shalini plans to set up a non-profit organisation to scale things up to encourage fellow students as well as to help keep the school clean.
Shalini's this very act has won over the hearts of Malaysians, who are flooding the comment section of The Star's Facebook post:
