“We are here not to change the whole world but to change the world for one child.”

James Nayagam, who is the Executive Director of SHELTER, is also one of its founders. The work that SHELTER does today is quite different from what its founders originally started out doing. Over the years, SHELTER has gone through changes in the kind of services offered and the people it hoped to impact through its work.

What we know today as SHELTER was established 25 years ago, when a group of seven met for a social gathering. They discovered that they each had a desire to help the children in a squatter settlement along Old Klang Road. One of the most straightforward ways to help the children at that time was to give tuition classes so that they could improve in their studies with the hope that it would enable them to reach a better standard of living.

Over time, however, they realized that the tuition classes were not making much of an impact. Although the children attended the classes, they were often tired and had no strength to concentrate because they were undernourished. Furthermore, the children were often neglected by their parents, who were working very hard to provide for their families. So this group of seven friends pooled their resources to buy food for the children and their families.

However, another problem arose. Most families in the settlement were renting the houses they were living in because they could not afford to own their own homes. When one family was evicted because they could not pay the rent, the friends decided that they needed to make more of a permanent impact in the lives of the families they were helping. Thus, they started a home in Section 12, Petaling Jaya, which housed that family as well as one full-time staff.

In 1981, the home was officially named Shelter Home for the Homeless. However, its residents were not limited to the homeless but also included aged, mentally disturbed and disabled individuals.

A year later, the friends found that the adults in the home were not benefitting from the help that was offered in the same way that the children were. Instead of becoming more independent and able to fend for themselves, the parents were becoming more dependent on the home. The children, however, responded positively to the help given to them. Thus, once again, the friends decided to redirect their resources and focus on children. In 1982, Shelter Home for Homeless was renamed Shelter Home for Children.

Initially, Shelter Home for Children took in any child who needed a place of safety. This included children who were abused, neglected or abandoned.

In the mid-1990s, the SHELTER staff became aware of the fact that, in addition to the physical and emotional abuse, some of its children had also suffered sexual abuse. The abuse had left deep scars which affected their relationships with SHELTER staff and with other residents.

SHELTER was also concerned about its teenage residents, as their well-being was equally at risk due to neglect and damaged relationships with parents.

Once again, SHELTER went through a shift in focus. Initially, it had placed emphasis on removing children and teenagers from situations that put them at risk, helping them to recover and providing protection. Now, however, the management realized that rehabilitation from the trauma that the children had experienced was equally necessary in their lives.

The saying, “Prevention is better than cure,” sums up SHELTER’s emphasis at this present time. Although SHELTER still brings children and teenagers into its homes to help them recover and provide protection from situations that threaten their safety, it has also initiated several measures in the hope that they will avoid situations in which children could face neglect, abuse or abandonment. These include the setting up of kindergartens, food aid programmes and tuition classes as well as working with remand boys in the Kajang prison. Some preventive programmes that SHELTER hopes to implement this year are a youth community centre and developing further the Single Mothers’ Support Network.

In addition, SHELTER also would like to increase the effectiveness of its programmes and its ability to reach more children and families. Through an internship programme, SHELTER hopes to increase the awareness about social work and social concerns in young people and develop volunteerism among professionals – such as doctors, lawyers, dentists and teachers to name a few – who could make an impact in SHELTER’s work.

As SHELTER looks back on its history and celebrates 25 years of reaching out and touching lives, it is also looking further on to the years ahead. With a mission statement, and a renewed desire to impact even more lives, SHELTER is moving towards bigger and better things but always with children’s interests at heart.

When asked about where he hopes to see SHELTER in five years, James answered that he has dreams of making SHELTER a national organization and to expand its services to even more areas in Malaysia. However, he remains realistic in his expectations of how far-reaching SHELTER can be, acknowledging that not every disadvantaged child can be helped. To him, the quality of services and programmes as well as their impact on children are far more important than the quantity of services and programme offered.

“It’s not the number [of children we impact], it’s what we are doing that should be effective,” he remarked. Indeed, if the life of one child is changed, that means the whole world to SHELTER, even if the whole world remains unchanged.