FEATURE One rainy Sunday night, I made an appointment with 28-year-old activist Benz Ali to visit a makeshift street tuition centre for poor children at Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur.

“It is still raining. I am not sure whether the children will come for tuition,” said Benz, who seemed quite concerned that my presence would be an exercise in futility.

We waited by a textile store called Alka Ria by the side of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, which is where the tuition is being held.

The tuition is not conducted at the three-storey shoplot but in the back alleys.

Several homeless people were sitting idly or lying down on the floor under a pile of paper boxes or newspapers seeking shelter as the night beckoned.

By 9pm, a group of children arrived, unaccompanied by their parents. Carrying umbrellas and small bags, they are aged between two and 15. They appeared jovial and shouted, “We want tuition!”

Benz proceeded to move the “classes” to the back alley of the shoplot where rubber mats were placed on the street for the children to sit. The children were slightly protected from the rain under the bright street lights.

These street alleys are the favourite haunts of drug addicts and the destitute, but now it is filled with children learning how to read and count...