KUALA LUMPUR - A 17-year-old girl living in the Chow Kit area hopes that one day she will be able to bring her family to live somewhere better, away from the environment where they currently reside.
The teenager, identified as Arni (not her real name) said she and her family have been living in a rented space around Lorong Chow Kit since 2024 after moving there with her mother.
"If I could choose, I would really want to take my family out of Chow Kit. We rent a small space. Inside, there are small rooms for my other siblings.
"My older brothers still live here too, one of them is already married," she said.
The third of four siblings said her parents are divorced and she now lives with her mother, who earns a living as a cook at a restaurant.
Arni is currently studying at Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih, here. She previously attended school in Sabak, Kelantan, but stopped studying temporarily during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"When we moved to Chow Kit, that was when I started to go to school again. I do not have problems studying here because there are many friends who help me.
"At night I am not very afraid because there are many people around," she added.
Still, she hopes that one day she can improve her family’s situation.
"My ambition is to become a chef like my mother. I want to work in a hotel. But for now I want to focus on my studies first," she said.