Tina's fixation on the lego pieces, constantly constructing and destructing

We were sharing stories of Tina* on our Facebook fanpage (www.fb.com/shelterhomemy) on how she was a severely neglected child (in terms of social interactions) and that she struggles really badly with her reading and counting abilities. We pointed out that despite of all those, there is one thing she really enjoys doing is to build things with basic building blocks. She can go at it on hours end without needing any close supervision or interaction.

When the story went out, comments came in wishing her well and hoped for success for her. However, a few more went beyond that and deliberately got things that was suitable for Tina’s way of learning – kinesthetic learning. One of the donors brought wood 3D puzzle whilst another brought a huge toy library for her! This donor who has a Montessori education background really took time to handpick each toy to fit into the library to ensure that Tina can learn from it. We were really touched by her gesture. When she dropped by to hand the gift and upon meeting Tina, she indicated that she wanted to do more - she wants to volunteer in teaching Tina with the toy library!

Soon after, another donor came to know about her shared her story to her sister and the sister wrote in and we are just left in awe, she decided to sponsor Tina a full sponsorship (RM600/month).

Prem* shared her toys with Tina, they had a good time together

Looking back, we still remember when Tina first came to us about two years back; she had a very strange way of greeting people. She would spit at them (literally) and would cheekily laugh and run off. If she wants your attention, she will hit you and run off (while laughing away). Today, she has changed her greeting language. She has learnt to hug when she greets and ask for our names when she wants/needs attention. The love for her is truly growing from within as well as the people from the outside!

*Name has been changed