Woman took five children to live on KL streets despite RM1,500 monthly income, activist says

PETALING JAYA – A woman is believed to have taken her five children to live on the streets of Jalan Silang, Kuala Lumpur, because she thought street life made it easier for her to obtain money.

More surprisingly, the woman is alleged to have been receiving more than RM1,500 a month from four of her children who are already working, on top of RM500 in monthly zakat assistance.

The case was shared on social media yesterday by the head activist and founder of Pertubuhan Jejak Jalanan, Mohamad Azhan Mohamed Adnan, better known as Abbe Hae.

According to Abbe Hae, the woman was rescued after he received complaints from members of the public, before she and her five children were placed at a homeless transit centre in Lorong Haji Taib.

He said family members also informed him that they had spent almost a year searching for her, as she often ran away, was difficult to contact and only reached out to her children when she needed money.

More disappointingly, he claimed, the money she received each month could be spent within one or two days, even though her working children were not high earners and had to sacrifice to support their mother.

"She can spend RM1,000 in just one or two days to treat the small children to lavish meals.

"To bring this woman back to normal, I had to perform ruqyah on her once or twice. This woman likes to keep running away from her family," he said, in remarks translated from Malay.

Abbe Hae said the woman was monitored temporarily at the family's request to prevent her from running away again, before one of her children took two buses from Kelantan to Kuala Lumpur to bring her home.

"Alhamdulillah, the case is settled. I have given her a stern warning that I will have to take her children and hand them over to the Social Welfare Department if she causes trouble again," he said.