Wednesday November 18, 2009
Nurhaniza’s legs just won’t take her anywhere
By DERRICK VINESH
BUKIT MERTAJAM: Peeking through the windows of her dilapidated house in Kampung Kebun Sireh here, Nurhaniza Ahmad is often teary-eyed when she sees people walking by outside.
Even the simple act of taking a stroll is beyond the 35-year-old, because her 170kg frame makes taking a single step a mighty effort.
It has been two years since the housewife stepped out from her house. Nurhaniza now uses her hands to drag herself around the house. Every time she tries to stand up, her knees would fail her.
‘‘I used to weigh 110kg five years ago. But after I took some Indonesian jamu tablets (traditional medication) to relieve muscular pain in my knees, I suddenly started to put on weight fast.
Home-bound: Nurhaniza resting at her home in Kampung Kebun Sireh in Bukit Mertajam Tuesday.She has not stepped out of her home for two years. “I only took the pills for two weeks. When I stopped, the aches returned and my left leg started to swell below the knee,’’ she said after getting a visit from the Penang Umno public complaints and welfare secretariat (Sepakat) and the Armed Forces Medical Corps.
Her husband, Abu Bakar Hashim, 50, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 16, earns about RM700 a month as an odd-job worker.
Her major support in life is her 11-year-old daughter Nurbayti Md Dali, who quit school in Year One to help her mother bathe as well as cook for the family.
Filial daughter: Nurbayti collecting water from a pond in front of her house in Kampung Kebun Sireh in Bukit Mertajam. Nurhaniza also suffers from high blood pressure.
The two caring teams also visited grandmother Besah Taib, 70, and her son, Yaacob Shariff, 46, in Kampung Pengkalan in Batu Kawan, Nibong Tebal.
Both are unable to walk due to nerve problems.
Sepakat also visited 58-year-old Zainol Awang in Ladang Batu Kawan. Zainol’s leg became deformed and swollen following a road accident a year ago.
In Kampung Tok Kangar, Juru, they paid leukaemia sufferer Jasni Ishak, 35, a visit.
‘‘We will help all the families we visited to apply for aid from the state tithes management centre,’’ said Sepakat chief operating officer Azlina Mehtab Mohd Ishaq.
She said Sepakat would also ask the Armed Forces Corps to provide manpower to help repair the dilapidated houses of a few poor families in the state, with funds from the Federal Government.
The Armed Forces medical services assistant director-general Kol Dr Zubir Ahmad provided free medical check-ups for the families they visited.
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