When someone finally asked why she wasn’t eating it, her answer was soft but sure: “It’s very nice … but I want to take it back and give it to my mother.”

A small act of sacrifice, made by a child with little, reflected something bigger – the quiet heartbeat behind the Bukit Bintang Community Centre (BBCC) under Holy Trinity Bukit Bintang (HTBB), a KL-based Anglican church.

The social action initiative runs on kindness, dignity, and the belief that a child who feels loved will carry love home.

“When children see kindness, they remember and respond in the same manner,” said Michael Ho, BBCC’s lead. “When they go home, most likely their outlook will be better – because when you receive kindness, you learn to give it.”

BBCC was officially formed in 2022 and now welcomes about 130 children – from six refugee schools and a children’s home – every first and third Saturday.

Located on the rooftop of Lot 10, the space fills with sports, games, and workshops in computers, baking, guitar playing, art and craft, run by nearly 40 volunteers.

“For many of these kids, this is the first time they’ve sat in front of a laptop or had someone teach them guitar,” Ho explained. “We want to show Malaysian kindness. Whatever we have, we’re ready to share.”

Weekdays are no quieter. Forty-eight children attend computer lessons every Monday. On Wednesdays, volunteers prepare sandwiches for 284 students across five refugee schools. Twenty more log into online maths classes twice a week. Myanmarese mothers gather for crochet lessons.

But the BBCC didn’t start with classrooms or computers. It began in 2019 with a simple question: how do we love our neighbours?

“I suggested everything – soup kitchen, childcare, tuition, even an old folks’ home,” Ho recalled. “The leaders wisely asked me to start with something doable. So we began with a food bank.”

With nothing but rice, noodles, canned goods and willing hands – Ho’s and another church member’s – the food bank rolled into motion. When Covid-19 struck, that small effort became a lifeline to nearly 80 families.

Partners soon began calling with funds and surplus food. Over time, the project grew, and to date, 17,870 food packs have been distributed to families in need. Ninety-six families now benefit from this monthly act of kindness.

When the pandemic eased, Ho found himself with another question: what if we didn’t just feed families – but welcomed their children into a place where they could dream? And so the BBCC emerged.

Workshops expanded, friendships formed, English improved, shy faces turned brave. A boy who once sat silent now plays guitar loudly enough to lead a room. A mother who learned to crochet now sells her work.

Ho said what moves him most are the volunteers who show up before breakfast, cutting fruit, tuning guitars, laying out crayons and notebooks.

“We think we don’t have enough to give,” Ho mused. “But the lunch you serve, the drink you pour – those acts of kindness leave a lasting mark.” You see that most clearly in December.

That’s when BBCC ends the year with a Christmas celebration big enough to fill a hall with joy – nearly 600 refugee children and families arriving by bus, volunteers welcoming them with food, music, gifts and applause.

It’s a yearly reminder of what the BBCC team believes deeply in – kindness doesn’t need to be grand, only steady.

“All it takes is one person to say, ‘I have a dream in my heart,’” said Ho. “I waited when we first started – and God grew it beyond what I imagined.”

Ultimately, loving strangers takes work – but it changes people. Like the girl saving her only chicken wing for her mother, love isn’t always grand.

“If that spreads from one community to another, maybe the nation will realise kindness isn’t hard,” Ho concluded.

Find out more about the Bukit Bintang Community Centre here.