Student works four part-time jobs to support self and family

Ong Ke Shing remembers when she used to build castles out of the cigarette boxes which her parents sold at their shop when she was a small child.

But the shop was making a loss and she also remembers her parents arguing about finances a lot when she was younger.

Now 22 years old, Ong (above) said she has to work four part-time jobs to support herself and her family, on top of being a full-time student in sports science at Universiti Malaya (UM).

She works about 60 hours a week in total, as a survey conductor, a sports masseuse, a bar waitress and a fitness instructor.

Ong said she has been working since Form 5, and explained that she knew she had to save up enough money for her tertiary education.

"(Now) working has become my habit. I have to work.

"If I take a break for one day... I will feel guilty the next day because I did not earn any money that day," said Ong, who also gets most of her clothes from recycling centres or hand-me-downs from relatives.

She was the subject of a short 9-minute film called "Clocked Out" made by fellow UM student Walli Khalik, who intended to put a focus on the financial struggles students face to make ends meet.

"I wanted to highlight from this documentary because as a student myself, I also have to take a part-time job to make ends meet.

"In one day, (Ong) can work up to 15 hours and that doesn't include the time she needs to attend classes.

"What type of condition or situation are we at right now?" Walli (photo, 2nd from left), 27, questioned.

His film was shown as part of a Freedom Film Festival 2019 programme in Petaling Jaya today called "Students Pun Mau Makan (Students also want to eat)", where four students, including Walli, were invited to speak on their experiences in dealing with financial struggles.

Aside from Walli, Malacca's Multimedia University (MMU) Student Council Representative president Pouria Zibaei was also part of the panel.

He recalled the MMU students protest in July this year against the proposed hike by university management to the student activity fee (SAF) from RM110 to RM500 annually.

Though that amount of money is not a big deal to some students, to others it is a huge increase in fees, he said.

"There are students who are struggling for even one extra ringgit a day. I am in my final year, the change will not even affect me but I don't care.

"When you are the president of the student council, you have a responsibility for all students," he said.

'Students are suffering from the poverty issue'

Another UM student, 23-year-old Umar Aiman, said he was born and bred in the middle-class area of Subang Jaya.

"So at that time I wasn't exposed to the plight of students. Then when I joined the Johor Matriculation College, I was exposed to the students' struggle.

"I saw a trend that was happening and that is students are suffering from the poverty issue," he said.

Taking matters into his hands, he decided to start a food bank to help his fellow students.

At first, Umar started small, intending to feed only 20 students a day with his own limited funding or from meagre donations from friends and family.

But his efforts were greatly boosted when the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry rolled out a new national food bank initiative targeting 20 public universities including UM early this year.

He said the university food bank he set up then received several tens of thousands of ringgit in funding to expand the number of students they can feed.

At the same time, UM Student Union (Umsu) member Naznur Farahani Md Yusof said part of her efforts were to ensure the management pays attention to the students' plight.

Not only that, she said, they are trying to reach out to those truly in need through their student union welfare bureau and not just based on documentation.

"We do not like the method used by the management of deciding whether someone is a B40 student based on their documents.

"Because we have seen someone whose documents say they are B40 but their lifestyle does not reflect this and they are living just fine whereas those without those documents are living a harder life," she said.

Aside from providing the students in need with food, she said they also try to provide any other supplies needed by students such as stationeries and even necessary toiletries.

It was reported earlier this year that many university students were struggling financially and forced to eat only one meal a day or take up multiple part-time jobs to support themselves. - Mkini