I’m writing this as I am editing the pictures taken during MCB’s open house in Kuala Lumpur. The smiling faces in the collection of photos proved that everyone enjoyed themselves and the many plates on the tables, laden with delicious food was a sign that everyone had plenty to eat with a variety of Raya favourites to choose from.

This year, we decided to deviate a little from our previous years’ venue and gave Hotel Istana a shot. MCB open house was held in the grand Mahkota Ballroom of the hotel on October 19, 2008 with staff, invited guests and their families arriving as early as 12 noon in their baju raya with parents and children mostly clad in matching colours.

Our special guests for the day were children from Pondok Penyayang Raudhah who came all the way from Gombak and also school children from MCB’s adopted schools from Segari, Prai and Pontian.

Pondok Penyayang Raudhah is home to orphans and delinquent juveniles and has been around for twenty years. They receive funding from generous individuals to cover the cost of their daily operations.

The girls and boys from the orphanage, who formed a group called “Bintang Raudhah”, entertained us with a few songs and even surprised the guests with an impressive show on the percussion!

The school kids from the adopted schools were on a 3-day-2-nights sponsored trip to Kuala Lumpur. Other than being our special guests for the open house, they were also taken around Kuala Lumpur for trips to the KL Tower, National Zoo, Desa Water Park, High 5 bread factory and Beryl’s chocolate factory.

While Ramadan is a month of giving, the act should not stop there and must also follow through in the month of Syawal. We are more than grateful for what has been blessed upon us and as a way to honour those more in need, the orphans from the orphanage and the children from the adopted schools were presented with some token from us. As the saying goes, “give a man a fish, you have fed him for today, but if you teach him how to fish, you have fed him a lifetime”. While the duit raya presented might last for only a few days, but we hope that the school shoes that are given to each child would be put to good use, and to encourage them to attend school and study hard in order to open more windows of opportunity for them in the future.

Hopefully this act of giving will not cease after Syawal but will be instilled and nurtured as a part of Malakoff’s culture towards those who are less fortunate.