Refugee aid distributor heartbroken over having to choose which family to help

 

Refuge for the Refugees (RFTR) founder Heidy Quah finds that as the needs of refugee families keep rising and the situation gets more dire, there are times she can be overwhelmed by the challenge.

"Just over the past week, we've received pleas for help from over 1,500 families and despite providing grocery packs to over 400 families this week and last, calls are still rolling in.

"Our RFTR Hotline is blowing up. We are receiving calls every 10 minutes and over 100 plus new messages each day. The voice notes being sent to us are absolutely heartbreaking.

"Probably some of the hardest things to listen to [...] and digest. Pictures of empty milk tins. Empty rice containers. Small children. I cannot imagine having to beg and plead in such a way," she said in a heartfelt post on Facebook.

Quah (above) then told Malaysiakini it was overwhelming to be faced with the choice of going through a list and having to pick which 450-500 refugee families could be helped this week.

"How do you decide who gets to eat for the week? I don't know how.

"I had a dad write in to me a few days ago with a very sick child. He has just RM70 to his name and he had to withdraw his child from the hospital because the bills are running to RM6,000 and he couldn't cope anymore," she said.

Quah added that as bad as last year's MCO was, the people on the ground seem to be struggling even more this year.

"It almost feels like it's worse. There's been an increase of reported suicide cases because people simply cannot cope and have zero savings," she said.

Quah and her team of 19 are serving more than 1,000 families in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and it's a full-time job.

"We basically work throughout the week, since it's an extremely lean team.

"From Monday to Friday we manage the hotline, compile the list of beneficiaries, verify details, and plan logistics and make purchases and on Saturday, the team gathers to pack for approximately 500 families (this includes unloading lorries, packing potatoes, sometimes chopping chicken).

"Then we load it up all into cars, give the drivers the routes and off they go to make their deliveries. Typical Saturday usually starts at about 8.30am until 5pm," she said.

RFTR initially started working with a number of groups but has been running independently for a while now since the other organisations had other commitments and couldn't continue in the partnership, she said.

"The situation in Selangor is pretty crazy and it's scary because cases are so high. Yet the needs are so dire.

"All of us on the ground now have received our first dose.

"With cases so high, we're also keeping our team extremely lean - we used to have a bit more flexibility where we had a packing team, and a delivery team - but now all hands are on deck and everyone packs and delivers," added Quah.

She said a donation of RM60 would go towards providing a family with 5kg of rice, eggs, flour, mee hoon, potatoes, onions, garlic, a chicken, sardines, curry powder, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots and salt.

"It only takes RM60 to help feed a family," she added.

Donations can be made to: CIMB 8000499285 in the name of Persatuan Kebaikan Perlindungan Kanak-kanak Perlarian, Ref: Foodaid  - Mkini