Personal account by Charlene Marie
This is a story of determination, as well as one that is testament that humanity is dead, until a handful of people proved that kindness and humanity is still very much present to those willing to fight and stand up for others.
I have been working with children with autism for 6 years now, and over the last year I have been working very hard to set up an early intervention centre that would be able to support middle income families. In August 2014, I found a beautiful office space in Cheras, and felt it was perfect for the kids. Documents were signed and payments made, I was getting ready to set the centre up in our first location; Bandar Taman Tasik Permaisuri. Fortunately before setting up the centre and getting the contractors to get work done, my dad popped by to have a look at the place, and to discover that there were no secondary emergency exits. Not only for my office, but for ALL the offices in the area! this was a no go for me as I would not put the kids in any circumstance that would potentially put them at risk, and I requested to the owner that my deposit be refunded. I pleaded on grounds that the building did not meet basic security measurements and to refund the deposit made. Months have passed, and I have not seen a single cent of what I paid, thats close to RM7K down the drain.
I have been running Autism Consultancy and setting up the first centre all on my own, and I told myself everything happens for a reason, learnt that I should not make the same mistakes as this one, moved on and started saving funds to open the next centre.
In December 2014, which was just a month ago, we (myself and centre manager) found a beautiful house in a gorgeous gated and guarded community; Taman Vista Cheras. We made it very clear that this property being in a residential area, we would need the approval of the committee and residents before deciding to take up the space to open the centre. less than a week after, we were told by the agent and house owner that we have received the green light from residents and the Chairman of Taman Vista Cheras, Michael that we are given the green light to set up. Learning from what I previously went through in the first place in Taman Tasik Permaisuri, a contract was drawn out stating our clear intentions of our nature of business, and also the owner of the house signing that she has informed and received the approval of the residents at Taman Cheras Vista. I was elated through all of this, knowing that I would be able to start the year off on a good foot, realising my dream to open the centre in time for the new year.
On the 3rd of January 2015, which was last Saturday, after a month of setting up the centre mostly on my own, we opened doors to parents. With the support of 9 therapists and myself, our open day was a massive success, seeing many families bring in their children for assessments. we were mostly a full house on Saturday! As I was leaving the centre to buy lunch for my therapists, our neighbour across us approached me.
Neighbour: what is this auti-auti you are doing?
Me: you mean autism? this is a centre for children with Autism.
It was clear from her facial expression that she was very upset, and she proceeded to ask me how long our tenancy was for. It was clear to me at that very moment, that my neighbour had no idea that we were setting up. I calmly told her that we are not here to intrude, and we were told that the residents have been informed, and we have received approval from the Chairman.
EVERYTHING WENT SPIRALLING DOWNHILL after Saturday.
my therapists came in for work on the 5th of January, and the guards would not let them in through the boom gates. I received a call at 7.30am from the centre manager expressing the problem. I proceeded to call the agent and house owner, to address this problem as we are paying tenants, and that they should let my therapists in. and hour later, my therapists were still waiting at the guardhouse. The Chairman of Taman Vista Cheras, as well as the Vice Chairman, were at the gate, and seemingly gave instructions to the guards that no visitors/owners/tenants were allowed into no 13, Jalan 3/1B. After much dialogue, my therapists were instructed to park at the guardhouse, and to walk into the premises. we were not allowed to even drive the cars in to park in our own porch.
at 10am, our client, a mother and her 2 year old son was also stopped from driving in. She too was instructed to park outside, and walk this little boy in almost 500 meters or more to our premises.
A meeting was called on the same day, and I attended with my Centre Manager, the house owner, agent, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Taman Vista Cheras. To be very honest, this was the start to a long night, and to be very honest my worst nightmare.
Everyone was civil, we introduced ourselves, and I welcomed everyone into the centre. The Vice Chairman, was the last to arrive. We offered our hand out to shake his hand, and he denied all of us, and instructed us to sit down and proceed. I mentioned that our agent is in the toilet, and we should wait for him. This created an outburst from the Vice Chaiman, and he was fuming. As soon as the agent approached, he was asked by the Vice Chairman, and I quote " to fuck off the property before he calls the guards to remove him". we were all shocked on his reaction and lack of better choice of words. The house owner expressed that this language was not necessary, and it is her house. The Vice Chairman insisted, and after about 20 minutes of shouting and foul language from this man, the agent left.
we were all left baffled, as this is not the sort of meeting we were hoping to have with the representatives of this community.
Basically, this meeting lasted 3 hours, and it centered around the notion that the owner did not receive approval from the residents, and the chairman was informed that the centre was supposed to be a baby sitting facility. Also, they mostly wanted us out of the property. Throughout this whole meeting, we were not given an opportunity to speak at all from the Vice President. I constantly said that we were misinformed, and I was not here to piss anyone off or to impinge on the peacefulness of the community. we were given a green light (and contracts to prove this in black and white), and if there could be any way we can meet halfway to solve this problem.
we were going no where, as the Vice President would not allow a word in, and to be honest we was so engulfed in rage, he kept repeating himself over things we have apologised for. I told him that we should all speak like adults, no point for shouting or anger, and if I was here to fight, I would have already. He took this as a challenge, and said how dare I challenge him. I retreated and told him that again, my intention is for us to work on this together, and not personally attack anyone at this meeting.
He proceeded to shout, and somewhere through the meeting, my centre supervisor had to speak out that we need to speak as adults, theres no need for shouting. Again, the Vice President lost his temper and said that he would get her thrown out of the house. I had to step in and say that he had no respect and again, we need to speak as adults.
the meeting mostly went in circles, with us constantly being shouted at, and basically we had no place in their community. I pleaded to to at least be given a chance to address our neighbours, to explain what we do, and to cast a vote. if we were asked to leave, we will respect that. The Vice Chaiman was against this idea and we went back an forth that we were not here to disturb, but to just give us a fighting chance to state our intentions. roughly at 10.30PM, they gathered about 15 or so neighbours to listen to us.
I stated my case, stating that we were misinformed, and we are not here to cause trouble. I explained what Autism is and how these children need support. I explained how expensive ABA therapy is, and we were creating opportunities for middle income families to access quality therapy. I explained the prevalence is 1 child to every 68 children will have autism, and in 20 years time or so, it will be every 1 in every 2 children. I cried, I pleaded. I was defeated. I had no intention to cause trouble, and I wanted the residents to know that we have good intentions. We were misinformed to believe that we were accepted in this community. We were obviously not.
my pleas fell on deaf ears. a vote was casted, and we were asked to vacate the house. I was exhausted. We did everything we could, we fought for our cause and for an opportunity to make a difference in many families lives. However the needs of the community was put first, something with a heavy heart we will have to accept and respect. we put out a good night, with everything we had.
Next, I asked if we could have a month to find a new place, and relocate to a new place. We will not run any therapy, and we will solely use the centre to pack up our things.
THIS IS WHEN EVERYTHING WENT FURTHER DOWN TO HELL.
the Vice President, in his own words said that we were not allowed in. We could not even park in our porch. we had to walk into the premises from the guardhouse, through rain and shine to come into our own place, which has been rightfully paid for he said this was our PUNISHMENT.
I can see this was becoming a personal attack. He said this in front of the committee, and neighbours present, that this is our punishment, that now we have to walk in, and we cannot accept any visitors. Mind you, as the company owner, I had the electronic pass and I was not allowed in. Not even to park into the porch.
the residents of Taman Vista Cheras that were present that night, felt that this was absurd, and they stood up for us. everyone voted that we should be allowed to pack up and leave in ease. with no trouble. they got what they wanted, we are leaving, why make this process so difficult on us?
I asked for a vote, and EVERYONE on the table including residents and the committee said that they AGREE for us to drive in, park in our own porch to start packing up. The Vice President, said NO NO NO. we should be punished, this was our punishment. 2 men stood up for us more than anyone for us that night, and I thank you with all my heart. They felt that this was unjust and uncalled for, and we were being treated less that what a human would treat another.
the house owner, apologised to us, in front of all the neighbours, that this was a mistake, and she is so hurt that we were being treated this way. Tears ran down her cheeks, and at this point I forgave her for everything, all the trouble and everything we had to go through to fight to keep this place up. I started to cry in response to her, and the fact that we have been fighting for a chance for 3 hours now, only to be treated like shit.
this caused the residents that were present to vouch for us, saying to the Vice President that this is uncalled for and he shouldn't need to be so hard on us. The Vice President refused right to the end, and walked of saying "IF YOU ALLOW THEM IN, I AM STEPPING DOWN FROM MY POSITION AS VICE PRESIDENT".
at this point, it was clear to me this was a power struggle. this wasn't about us, this was about the fact that whatever he said was the word, and no one should challenge him.
I stood up, thanked everyone for their time, and said that we will walk up everyday to our premises everyday to pack up. we will serve our punishment.
Two residents, apologised to us, for the ill treatment from the Vice President. I cried and thanked them for constantly fighting for us to be treated justly.
We locked up, and a fight broke outside of the centre, we had people standing up for us against the Vice President's iron hand. This was not how we extended to end the meeting, but I am so thankful that there are people that will not stand by seeing other people being pushed around and "punished".
thank you. I left on Monday night defeated, but thankful that there are some people that will fight for us. they did not know who we were, but they would not stand by to see us being treated that way. thank you again.
and to the Vice President of Taman Vista Cheras I will pray for you, that you will learn compassion, humility and to lead with kindness. I am thankful that your committee and residents saw you as the man that you are, one that would threaten to throw out men and women from a house that is not your own, to go against senior residents, the same people that voted for you to be Vice President, all because of your need to unjustly punish us for being present in this community.
and this being said, things would have been very different if anyone of those people there that night had a child with special needs. If they knew they hard work that goes into helping these kids, and if they knew these kids are just like any other kid, they are not a nuisance and they are all very special in their own ways.
It would have been very different.
No comments:
Post a Comment