The current CMCO period has highlighted the number of Malaysians living on or just above the poverty line. The Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC) National Committee for Community Services & Health has always worked tirelessly to help those in need, but the number in need at this time is overwhelming. So, to the rescue comes Papa Tasty in Austin Heights. They have been providing approximately 450 lunch packs every day since 6th May, which at a rough calculation comes to 15,750 meals! This is incredibly generous and the MRC is greatly appreciative as it allows their scarce resources to be used on other deserving matters.
So, yesterday I joined the MRC to help distribute 150 lunch packs to people in Kampung Sungai Pok, Gelang Patah. The MRC believes in going “Everywhere for Everyone” and this kampung is a little of the beaten track. It is not far from the Leisure Farm and Forrest City developments, but it is actually worlds away. So, we drove to Papa Tasty in Austin Heights to collect the food and then headed off towards Gelang Petah, hoping that the rain would hold off today while we were out.
We loaded up and unloaded again; it’s a good thing that our volunteer Mohd Irwan bin Dolhadi (AKA “Chef") is strong!
We were met by locals who were helping to coordinate today’s activities. These people are invaluable to the work of the MRC because they advise on how best to distribute food aid to those in need, based on local knowledge.
Because it was the time of Friday prayers, we left before the bulk of the lunch boxes were distributed, so here are a few photos taken by the volunteers here.
Next we followed the local volunteers down small lanes to find families in need of help.
In addition to giving food supplies, they were also given MRC hygiene kits and packs of toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, and washing powder generously donated by Southern Lion.
But probably the best received gifts were the packets of biscuits, which the children clearly appreciated.
In a neighbouring house, we met another family who benefitted from our visit today. The outside of their house, where they had made a covered sitting area, was painted in bright colours, which was a welcome relief to the very dark interior. This family had added coloured bottles to brighten up a dead tree outside, and had hung old weaver birds’ nests up for decoration.
It is easy to be deceived by the beauty of the Malaysian countryside. You might look at the photo below and think “How idyllic!”. But this house is quite remote and the recent heavy rains have made the ground very muddy and difficult to walk on. I would imagine that the elderly occupants might have had a sense of being marooned here. Fortunately, they had not been forgotten by the local community so we stopped by here to give them some support with a few provisions.
Our final destination today was the reason we took the 4x4 vehicle today. We drove down single track roads which led into gravel lanes to the end of the road. I usually ‘pin’ my location on my phone so I can know where I have been during these travels, but the phone reception was too poor for this. This was the end of the line!
The family who lived here had built their own home, but the gentlemen’s health was poor and he was unable to work. He was a charming and very dignified man who just wanted to provide for his family. In fact every one we met today seemed diffident to receive gifts, but it was clear that help was needed.
For this family, today really was their lucky day because a couple of guys from Iskandar Puteri City Council also arrived with food supplies, thus supplementing the lunch boxes from Papa Tasty, and the general provisions and hygiene materials given by the MRC..
And here we see the contrast of life styles…. his wooden shack was right next door to a more solid building currently under construction. The owner of the new building was Singaporean so all work on that had ceased for the last few months. Not only is the new building more solidly built, but it is also raised up from the ground. The location here is near a small river which overflows when the tide is high and floods the shack. But this same mangrove swamp provides some respite from his health problems as he has built a small sleeping platform there to escape the confines of the shack at night.
To the left side of these buildings was a rubbish dump, which had attracted some huge macaque-like monkeys. Behind them you can see the mangrove trees growing in the swampy river.
I think Malaysia needs a flowering-plant-growing competition! These beautiful hybiscus plants flower all year and readily provide a glorious distraction to the waste which is disgarded anywhere and everywhere.
So, these are examples of the people who were being helped today by the MRC and by Papa Tasty. Thankfully, the MRC has traditionally received generous donations from many sources. In particular, corporate sponsors such as KFC and Nestle are exceptional.
KFC’s sponsorship is in the form of funds which the MRC uses at their discretion, often to buy KFC meals as treats for clients. In the example below, Rohingya children at the school run by the charity Cahaya Surya Bakti (CSB) were being given advice on hygiene and health by members of the MRC and medical students from Monash University in Johor Bahru (for more information, please click here). Their reward for listening and learning was a KFC lunchbox and they were all delighted with this!
In contrast, Nestle more often provides food stuffs for special occassions and particularly in emergency situations. Their prepackaged foods (noodles, Milo, coffee, etc) are ideal under these conditions and are frequently found in the food packages which the MRC distributes. The photos below show food packages being prepared at the MRC depot prior to our trip to the evaquation centre at Layang-Layang following the floods last December (for more information, please click here).
There are in fact many organizations which have helped MRC over the years. The biscuits which the children love were donated by 7-Eleven and bread and cakes from Mactese Food are always appreciated too. Sometimes we forget how the simplest things can mean such a lot to those for whom these things are rare treats.
I sincerely hope that these people won’t be forgotten once the CMCO period ends. If you would like to help in any way, or know of families which are in need of help, please call this number 019 755 5600.
Click here to see more about the activities of the Malaysian Red Crescent.
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