The mother of all carers

The Star Online > Nation
Monday December 8, 2008

The mother of all carers

KUALA LUMPUR: While some mothers may need a maid or two to care for their children, Norlina Alawi cares for 50 “kids” with only the help of a cook and a helper during the day.

“I am a very hands-on mum. I take care of them myself,” Norlina, 37, told reporters.She was among four recipients of the first F&N Out-Do Yourself Award held on Thursday night.

“I want to give kids the chance to have a mother’s love. That is why I adopted them.”

Norlina and her husband Major Roslan Zakaria, 43, have seven kids of their own aged between two and 17.

She started adopting kids since 2001 and their age ranges from a three-week-old baby to a 37 year-old woman who had been abused.

Norlina set up a home in 2004 called Persatuan Kebajikan Anak-Anak Pesakit HIV/AIDS Nurul Iman Malaysia (Pernim) to care for children suffering from HIV or AIDS.

In 2001, she agreed to care for her sister’s mute friend who was HIV positive and pregnant.

“When the baby was born, we found that he was also HIV positive. His mother could not continue to care for him, and so I became pregnant with my sixth child so that I could continue breastfeeding him,” she said.

“Fortunately, with proper care and nutrition, he is now a healthy child.”

Asked what it is like to mother 50 children, she said:

“I didn’t go looking for them. They came to me, and they’re all a blessing. I love them all the same.”

She said it costs about RM50,000 a month to care for her children, and relied on donations from individuals and corporate organisations.

She also receives government aid of RM80,000 yearly while Lembaga Zakat gave them RM25,000 this year.

“I am really grateful for this honour. This is not for me, but for all my children,” she said.

The other award recipients are Siow Lee Chan, the bronze medallist for weightlifting in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games; Seng Woam Guei, who protected her student from an armed attacker; and S. Prakash, who is visually impaired but is pursuing a Masters in Translation in Universiti Malaya.

The award is for achievers in various fields and those who go beyond the call of duty. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad presented the awards comprising RM3,000 cash, a certificate of recognition, a plaque and F&N products.


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Unnoticed heroes on Mumbai attack: Fire fighters

Unnoticed heroes on Mumbai attack: Fire fighters
Agencies Posted online: Nov 29, 2008 at 1746 hrs

Mumbai : They are neither from the Army, NSG or even the police, but when it came to putting their lives in the line of fire, both fire brigade personnel and the emergency medicos did so without any hesitation while rescuing people from the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels besides Nariman House. While the history of terrorism in the country was being re-written by a group of highly trained and motivated LeT terrorists from Pakistan, the unarmed service personnel moved about with the work, at times even coming under heavy gunfire and grenade attack.

"Our ambulance was asked to move into the lobby by the security personnel to take out some of the injured. As we rushed in, a grenade exploded right in front of our ambulance shattering the windshield. I ducked and hit my accelerator and we zoomed into safety," said Raju, a worker of Western India Automobile Association's ambulance.

"There were some pretty scary moments while we were fighting fires at the Taj Hotel. On Thursday night when we were in a cage trying to rescue guests, we saw one of the terrorists carrying a gun," A V Sawant, Chief Fire Officer said.

"Luckily for us he did not turn in our direction and we managed to continue fighting the fire," Sawant said.

"On Friday morning we were asked to get in and take out the body of a commando. We were given bullet-proof jackets and asked to move to the first floor along with some commandos. We climbed up but while coming back suddenly some shots were fired at us and the commandos retaliated. Luckily we rushed out with the injured officer," Mohammad Yunus Sheikh, an attendant with a private emergency response company, said.
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SA 'heroes' save Mumbai hostages

SA 'heroes' save Mumbai hostages

A team of South African bodyguards have been explaining how they led 120 hostages to safety from a hotel seized by gunmen in the Indian city, Mumbai. The guards, armed only with knives and meat cleavers, helped other hotel guests to safety down a fire escape.

They carried a traumatised old woman in a chair down 25 flights of stairs.

"Everybody was calm and no-one became hysterical," said Bob Nicholls, director of the security company in Mumbai for a cricket tournament.

Mr Nicholls said he and his employees were eating in the restaurant and were planning to get an early night when they heard shooting in another part of the five-star Taj Mahal hotel.

The seven bodyguards were in Mumbai providing protection for cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League tournament.

They barricaded the doors to the conference centre shut with tables and refrigerators and kept guests calm while they worked out what to do.

"Shortly afterwards, we felt explosions rock the building and I became worried about how safe the people were behind those glass doors," Mr Nicholls told South Africa's Beeld newspaper.

'Surprise'

"We put the lights off in the restaurant to give us an element of surprise," bodyguard Faisul Nagel told the AFP news agency.

They watched the lifts to see if the gunmen were coming their way.

When they realised the building was on fire they began to move the other hotel guests out.

"We told the security manager of the hotel to tell the police not to shoot, and then walked everyone down the fire exit at the back of the hotel very quickly," Mr Nagel said.

Mr Nicholls said they had all been trained how to deal with threatening situations.

Bodies

Meanwhile, all the South African nationals who were trapped in the other hotel attacked on Wednesday have now been freed.

South African officials said the Indian security forces had evacuated the remaining seven nationals from the Oberoi hotel, and they were safe.

Another five had been evacuated earlier. All worked for the national airline, SAA.

Indian commandos who managed to enter other parts of the Taj Mahal say they found at least 30 bodies in one hall. It is not clear if that number is included in the reported overall death toll of 130.

Gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades targeted at least seven sites in Mumbai late on Wednesday, opening fire indiscriminately on crowds at a major railway station, the two hotels, the Jewish centre, a hospital and a cafe frequented by foreigners.

The attacks are the worst in India's commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006.

A claim of responsibility has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.

However, most intelligence officials are keeping an open mind as the attacks have thrown up conflicting clues, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7753945.stm

Published: 2008/11/28 14:13:37 GMT

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Staff emerge as heroes in Mumbai hotel sieges

Staff emerge as heroes in Mumbai hotel sieges
Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:07am EST

By Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Prashant Mangeshikar could be dead, one of more than a hundred victims of militant attacks across Mumbai landmarks, if it had not been for an employee at the Taj Mahal Hotel.Mangeshikar, his wife and daughter were in the foyer of the 105-year-old hotel on Wednesday night when Islamist gunmen opened indiscriminate fire in one of a series of coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.

Recovering from the initial shock and chaos, hotel staff shepherded the guests, including the Mangeshikar family, through the service section upstairs -- only suddenly to come face to face with one of the gunmen.

"He looked young and did not speak to us. He just fired. We were in sort of a single file," Mangeshikar, a 52-year-old gynecologist, told Reuters. "The man in front of my wife shielded us. He was a maintenance section staff. He took the bullets."

The tale of the unnamed staff member has echoed across Mumbai where, time after time, hotel workers have emerged as the people who shielded, hid or evacuated their wealthy guests from militants at the Taj and Trident/Oberoi hotels.

Hotel workers in one case ushered guests into a conference room and then locked the doors to protect them from the militants. The guests were later rescued by the fire brigade.

The staff often proved essential, knowing short cuts to safety and where emergency exits were located.

SPRAYING BULLETS

Within seconds after Mangeshikar's family was saved from the bullets, the guests made a dash for the hotel rooms to hide.

Mangeshikar and a few others dragged the wounded hotel employee identified only as "Mr. Rajan" into one of the rooms.

"His intestine was a lump hanging from a gaping hole in his abdomen," he said. "The bullet had entered him from close to the spine."

For the next 12 hours, Mangeshikar and other guests surrounded the wounded man trying to push back his intestines with bedsheets and stop the bleeding. He was finally evacuated, but it was not known if he survived.

"The hotel staff has been very, very brave," Mangeshikar said. "Hats off to them."

As the gunmen went around spraying bullets, on another floor hotel staff struggled to secure the doors with bedsheets and put tables and beds against the doors.

Televisions had gone off. Power also went out. Some people tried desperately to call their family on cell phones.

Kanda Noriyaki, a chef at the hotel's Japanese restaurant, led guests trembling and screaming with fear to safety.

"We hid in the restaurant," Noriyaki told Reuters. "We could hear the firing somewhere very close. Intermittently, there were blasts."

Many evacuees from the hotel hailed the bravery of the staff. "Just imagine, they even served us food the first few hours," said a hotel guest, who did not wish to be named. "Only when the kitchens became out of bounds did they express regret for not being able to serve us food."

One person recounted how Taj staff stopped panicky guests from rushing into the lobby where militants could have shot them.

"They were brilliant," Bhisham Mansukhani told the Mail Today. "If they hadn't kept their cool, many more lives would have been lost."

The wife and children of the Taj's general manager who lived on the hotel premises were killed in the attacks. Witnesses said many trainee chefs had been killed in the kitchen of the Taj.

Mangeshikar said that, but for the courage of Mr. Rajan, his wife and daughter could have been dead.

"I'm going out today to the hospital to find out what happened to him," he said. "I owe it to that brave man."

(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and John Chalmers)

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