The pair, who got married last month, used the RM3,000 they saved in traditional wedding door gifts to give 20 children from the Community Children’s Home and 35 more from Rumah Charis Children’s Home, a treat recently.

“We thought about how some people spend so much on weddings when there are people out there who aren’t so fortunate.

“We wanted to do something more meaningful with the money,” said the husband, Aaron Anthony, who works in a bank.

His wife, Amelda Wong, who works as a business consultant in the same bank as Anthony, said: “Every year, we would donate some money to charity but this year we wanted to do something a little more hands-on.”

The children arrived at Charlie’s Cafe in Taman Desa here in hired buses and were welcomed with a feast and a clown for entertainment. There was also a photo booth outside.

“We chose Charlie’s Cafe because we knew they also did charity work and would be interested in helping us,” said Anthony.

The cafe encourages its customers to donate RM5 for the next customer’s meal as part of its pay-it-forward programme.

“The couple called me and told me they wanted to do it at my cafe and I was more than happy to allow them to,” said cafe owner Desonny Tuzan.

On top of paying for the food, Anthony and Wong gave the charity homes RM15 for each child.

“We thought of giving the kids a back-to-school kit but the homes told us they preferred to have the money so they can use it for their everyday needs, such as groceries,” said Anthony.

Wong said it was hard deciding on which charity homes to invite to the event.

“We know that there are some homes that are well funded and we wanted to make sure we were giving to somewhere deserving,” she said.

She said they hoped to hold another charity event in the future.

“It will take quite a while before we will be able to do something like this again but if we have the means, then definitely. We learnt a lot from this one.”