Fatimah (right) presents Raya goodies to a child, as Kamarulzaman (second left) and others look on.

KUCHING: There are 56,869 individuals receiving welfare aid in the state as at May this year, and `Old Folks’ (those aged 60 years and above) top the list with 22,602 recipients.

Coming in second are those in the Children’s Aid category for single parents who are poor at 13,956.

This is followed by General Assistance with 10,869 people.

Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah gave these figures during the `Breaking of fast with orphans’ and REDfm Best Eh Raya live recording here on Saturday.

The event was organised by Musyati Sdn Bhd and the 30 children from SK Pulo received goodies and `duit raya’.

“The aid for single parents is RM100 per child. The maximum is RM450 per month, and we are looking into increasing the amount given out,” said Fatimah.

She added that the ministry had two other institutions for orphans: Children’s Home at 12th Mile and Datuk Ajibah Abol Children’s Home in Sri Aman.

There are other centres that take in orphans, such as Peryatim and Salvation Army Children’s Home.

Present at the gathering were Musyati’s operations manager Kamarulzaman Ahmad and RTM Sarawak deputy director Jamel Seman.