PASIR PUTEH, Sept 28 — “Thank you, Minister (of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil), for understanding my predicament.”
That was the heartfelt gratitude from former part-time Berita Harian Kelantan reporter Rokaid Chik, who is now bedridden after suffering three strokes.
Despite facing speech and hearing problems, Rokaid, 58, expressed how moved he was that his ill health was still receiving attention from the media fraternity after receiving a donation from the Kasih@Hawana Fund.
According to Rokaid’s wife, Rosmahani Ramli, 58, her husband first suffered a minor stroke in 2014 but recovered after several treatments.
“The second stroke was in 2018, and in 2020, he suffered a third stroke, which left him in a coma for three months. Now, both sides of his body cannot function normally, he cannot move, and he has lost his hearing.
“Because he cannot hear, we communicate using WhatsApp even though I am just next to him,” she told Bernama after receiving a donation from the National Journalists Day 2023 (Hawana) secretariat at her residence in Kampung Selising yesterday.
Rosmahani said since Rokaid stopped working, she had to manage all the family’s expenses, including paying her husband’s caretaker and covering the costs of their two children’s education.
“No one is at home when I go out to teach at school, so I hire someone to care for him while I’m at work. I have applied for early retirement this year to care for my husband,” she said.
Meanwhile, the couple’s youngest child, Nurin Atuni Sofea, 19, said she will study medicine at a university in Egypt early next month to realise her father’s wish to see her become a doctor.
However, the family has to fork out RM40,000 a year for her tuition fee, apart from accommodation and other necessities.
“I hope everything will work out easier and that I will be blessed to achieve this goal and bring a little joy to Abah and Umi (her parents),” she said.
The Kasih@Hawana Fund, created in conjunction with Hawana 2023, aims to support media practitioners, former media personnel and veteran journalists who are in dire need of help.
It is an initiative of the Ministry of Communications and Digital and implemented through the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama).
— Bernama
