NGOS AND THE HOMELESSNESS IN KUALA LUMPUR: TOWARDS MORALISTIC TRUST

The aim of the paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of the role of NGOs that provide food distribution to the homeless in Kuala Lumpur. Using personal interviewing as a method of data collection, the study focuses on the aspect of social capital amongst the Non-Governmental Organizations, especially in terms of bonding and bridging social capital. Analysis of the data procured from the NGOs was done, and trust as one of the components of social capital is seen evidently in the study. This paper defines a new kind of trust that exists between the seven NGOs and the homeless people in this particular context, namely moralistic trust. Informants who have been interviewed all declared a uniform insight towards their relationships to the homeless, giving us a new understanding as to how NGOs build trust with those who are considered destitute, weak, doomed, losers or marginalized in society.