Family of Five Living in Small Room for RM350 a Month Discovered After Putting Up White Flag

By Edleena Sephia  •  02 Jul 2021 in News

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A married couple’s decision to put up the white flag outside of their room as a call for help revealed that their family of five have been living in a small room since three years ago.

They had been living in the 3.6 x 6.1-metre room in what used to be a budget hotel at Jalan Munshi Abdullah for RM350 a month.

45-year-old Erala Ismail said that she’s in deep sorrow every night thinking of the future of their children adding that there are now days where they would only eat once a day since she is the only one making ends meet as her husband left his job as a kitchen assistant six months ago.

After discovering about the white flag campaign on Facebook, Erala and her husband put up the white flag three days ago since they don’t want their children, aged 10 to 16, to starve.

Speaking to Sinar Harian, Erala said, “I suggested to my husband to put up the white flag, who knows people might actually care enough to help.

“Alhamdulillah, after two days, there were people who came to help including Kota Melaka Member of Parliament, Khoo Poy Tiong and we’re so thankful.”

Prior to living here, they rented a house for RM400 a month but couldn’t afford to carry on because Erala’s 42-year-old husband, Syed Sidiq Abudin Syed Abdul Aziz was only earning RM35 a day then.

Erala added that she wasn’t able to enrol her children in school and her eldest needs special education due to her hearing difficulty.

“Every time my daughter goes to the shared bathroom I would accompany her because I don’t want anything bad to happen.

“This is the room where we sleep and cook and I hope we get to move to a better place but sadly we can’t afford to pay the expensive deposit,” Erala said.