Coming together to help the flood victims

The flood situation in six states continue to improve, with the number of flood victims recorded at relief centres in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Johor and Sabah on the decline.

Jan 08, 2015

By Bernard Anthony
The flood situation in six states continue to improve, with the number of flood victims recorded at relief centres in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Johor and Sabah on the decline.

Total and utter devastation — this, in essence, describes the situation in the East Coast, which bore the brunt of the worst flooding to hit the country in decades.

An estimated 150,000 people from six states (Kelantan, Pahang, Terengganu, Perak, Johor and Sabah) have been affected, and hundreds of homes lost, with Kelantan being the worst hit.

Archbishop Julian Leow also sent out letters to all the churches in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur for a second collection for the weekend Masses of Dec 27-28 to be taken for the flood victims.

In an effort to help relieve the suffering and pain of the flood victims; The East Coast Flood Relief Centre, Church of St Thomas, Kuantan in collaboration with The Archdiocesan Office for Human Development (AOHD) has organized a ‘East Coast Flood Relief Donations Drive 2014.’

The Drive saw some 15-18 tonnes of essential relief supplies, mainly consisting of mineral/bottled water, dry and canned food stuff including milk powder, cup noodles, rice, biscuits, cooking oil; toiletries including diapers and the like. Several cheque donations were also collected by AOHD, under Phase 2, up to Jan 2, 2015. These were donated mainly through the several Parishes in Kuala Lumpur & Selangor, individuals and Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd (PKGS).

According to Programme Coordinator Dr Sheila, AOHD had sent 300 packs of Medi-Kit (emergency supplies including medications) on Dec 29, 2014, under Phase 1, which started on Dec 26.

Many youths from the Church of the Assumption, Jesus Caritas Church, Church of St Anne, Church of the Good Shepherd including a couple of migrants as well as committee members from ASAYO were busy sorting and packing the food and daily essentials at AOHD.

For 23-year-old Anthony Hoang Van Thoan, seeing houses ravaged by floods and people evacuating to shelters is not an unfamiliar experience.

In fact, this Vietnamese worker said he knew exactly how it felt as his hometown in the Lai Chau province in the Northwest region of Vietnam had been hit by floods year in,year out.

For that, Hoang said that when he read the report that most states in Malaysia were hit by floods, he registered to participate in the East Coast Malaysia Flood Relief Programme organised by the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development (AOHD) without a moment of hesitation.

He said that although he could not afford to give cash and materials, at least he could help the flood victims by giving his time and energy. Joseph Cha Ru, 27, from Myanmar, said the flood victims in Malaysia could be likened to refugees right now as they had to evacuate to shelters after their homes were destroyed by floods.

“I understand their situation...floods left them homeless. That’s why I joined the programme, to help alleviate their burden,” he said.

Archbishop Julian Leow was also present to give encouragement and support to the many volunteers that came at the break of dawn on Sunday, Jan 4 to load the food and essentials onto the lorries that will head to Church of St Thomas in Kuantan, for distribution to flood victims.

Meanwhile, another Programme Coordinator, Josephine Tey said three priests in East Coast were involved in the coordinations; namely Fr Andrew Kooi (Jerantut/Kuala Lipis), Fr Mitchel Anthony (Kuantan Operations Room) and Fr Phillips Muthu (Kemaman/Dungun & other areas).

As for Phase 3, Tey said volunteers estimated numbering over 100, will be deployed after Jan 5, to the East Coast to assist in the clean-up of the flood affected areas. Dr Sheila said they will be going in batches. Ten of them left on Jan 5.

Tey also said that because of the networking between the PIHD Ministry of the parishes with AOHD and the East Coast Flood Relief Centre at St Thomas, the co-ordination ran smoothly, resulting in quicker and efficient responses to collect the donation of food and basic necessities.

Dr Sheila said on Jan 5 that AOHD is now looking into collecting blankets, mats, pillows, brooms and detergent (At the moment they will not accept further foodstuffs). --Agencies

Total Comments:0

Name
Email
Comments