PETALING JAYA, Nov 23,2019 : Yemen’s Ambassador to Malaysia was in for a surprise when he joined Raja Muda of Perlis Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail’s cycling entourage.

Dr Adel Mohamed Ali Ba Hamid, who assumed office in 2016, initially thought it was just a sports programme.

However, he soon found himself meeting poor families in the slums of Perlis and providing assistance to the needy together with Tuanku Syed Faizuddin’s team.

In a letter shared with the press, Adel praised Tuanku Syed Faizuddin’s initiative for its impact – sports for all with community service at its core.

“We stopped at the homes of needy families, one by one, to provide assistance, including financial, food, as well as healthcare support, ” he said.

The entourage also visited a roadside restaurant run by a poor family which was a beneficiary of the programme, where he met a mother and a young child.

“I thought the boy was her son but she told me that the mother of this child had died and his father refused to take care of him.

“She decided to raise him with her other children.

“At that moment, I realised that true wealth does not come from having a lot of money, but from the richness of the heart, ” wrote Adel.