Cabbie gets aid from well-wishers after flash flood disaster

After flash floods struck several areas in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday, a picture of a taxi driver seeking shelter from the flood on top of his taxi was widely circulated on social media.

Projek Kaseh4U founder Normaliza Mahadi said when she saw the picture, on WhatsApp and Facebook, she knew that she wanted to help the taxi driver, who was later revealed to be Ab Razak Noorzam.

"I know that taxi would be in bad shape (after the flood), and that he would have to pay the rent (for the taxi) every day, even though he cannot use the taxi.

"I thought maybe we could help him pay for something, at least pay for his rent or something," Normaliza told Malaysiakini.

Through Projek Kaseh4U's Facebook page, she urged the people to help her track down the taxi driver in the picture.

To her astonishment, she received overwhelming support, with her posting being shared almost 10,000 times.

"Somebody recognised him and sent me his phone number, so I called him and then last Sunday morning, I met him and passed some cash to him so he could pay his rent first," she said.

When she met Razak (on right, receiving aid), she said he was very thankful and could not imagine that people who did not know him wanted to help him.

"He said, it's a miracle, people who don't know him coming forward to help him," Normaliza said.

Since then, she has posted the original picture of Razak, along with his contact and bank account information, so that members of the public could donate directly to him.

However, she has no idea how many people have since donated directly to him.

Someone had also offered to help Razak clean his taxi, she added, but when she contacted him again, he told her someone was already cleaning it for him.

Malaysiakini has been trying contact Razak but has so far been unsuccessful.-Mkini