BEING charitable to the poor knows no boundaries to a car workshop operator in Durian Tunggal, Melaka.
True to the adage “have car will travel”, Shikh Muhammad Makhdad Haron who runs the Makhdad Workshop at Kampung Gangsa charges only a RM1 token price for a used vehicles sold to a needy buyer so that the individual can have a car to make a living.
Working together with several technicians and workshop operators, Makhdad, 49, who himself is apt at repairing old cars, launched the “RM1 car” programme during the COVID-19 lockdown, according to Chinese language daily Sin Chew Daily.
Makhdad has some technician buddies who repaired the so-called old car while the workshop operator would be on the lookout for the necessary spare parts. The car would then be sold to the needy for only RM1 after repair.
Makhdad sold the first RM1 car – a Perodua kancil – to Jamilah Mazaki, 70, who is a single mother with five children in May last year. The single mother was selling nasi lemak at her roadside stall when her only car was damaged in a road accident.
She had no choice but to look for a cheap used car. Coincidentally, Makhdad had a car left by a customer for a long time. He told the single mother to buy the car at RM1 but she would have to transfer the car’s ownership which cost less than RM500 herself.
“If she were to buy a very cheap used car, she would still need to fork out RM2,000 to RM3,000 for one,” Makhdad told Sin Chew Daily.
Instead of taking RM1 from the single mother, Makhdad told Jamilah to buy a copy of Quran and send it to the nearest mosque. For non-Muslims, Makhdad would ask the buyers to purchase food stuff for a temple or charitable organisation.
Since the launch of his RM1 car project, Makhdad told Sin Chew Daily that he had gifted about six cars and four motorcycles.
He once spent RM1,000 to repair a used car and gave it to the needy for RM1. “I was motivated to do more by the recipients’ smiles,” he said.
Makhdad once ran a “Friday free car service” to raise close to RM20,000 for his daughter’s religious school to have cement floor and an awning. The campaign is still ongoing. His workshop used to be full of dried foods for distribution to the needy during the movement control order (MCO) at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. – Feb 28, 2023
Main pic credit: Berita Harian
