Giving to charity, or just dumping your rubbish?

 

I passed by a familiar and upsetting scene recently as I was delivering some gas stoves as requested by Sungei Lui flood victims — piles of jumbled clothes strewn along the 60-metre (200ft-long) corridor of a multipurpose hall that was converted into a flood relief centre.

The sight jumped out at me, amid the chaotic traffic, as we drove past the multipurpose hall. It reminded me of the piles of unwanted clothes discarded all over the place at flood relief centres in Kuala Muda in January 2015, after the Boxing Day tsunami in Aceh.

And ever since then, as a member of a few 4×4 clubs which provide all-terrain support for relief missions, I have noticed the many situations where there is a mismatch between what victims want and what donors give.

People do want to help, when they can. Given that government services were very slow in coming, disaster tourists and rubberneckers at Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, were so moved by the devastation that they transformed into volunteer relief workers, spontaneously helping dazed residents to shovel out mud and remove bulky, water-damaged items to the street.

Some companies lived up to their corporate social responsibility, including Lotus’s hypermarket, which sent in teams of workers to help clean up houses in Taman Sri Muda. Lotus’s, a supermarket chain in Thailand, recently acquired Tesco’s operations in Malaysia.

People also contributed money. The gardeners club in Taman Tun Dr Ismail raised about RM100,000 from their members, relatives and friends.

And then there are those who donate their clothes.

We must ask ourselves whether we are donating clothes that we don’t want or are we donating clothes that people want?

If we just throw clothes that we don’t want, unsorted, into bin liners or cartons, with the intention of donating them as part of a future 4×4 relief mission – that’s not a donation, that’s just a disposal of unwanted clothes.

Overloaded with sorting out clothes

One volunteer, Mollie, who was helping at the gurdwara in Shah Alam, said that some donations looked like the remnants of someone’s spring cleaning.

“Don’t talk about unsorted clothes. There was even the base of a Christmas tree. We volunteers are already overloaded with sorting the clothes. Now we have to also throw away the rubbish that some people bring,” she said.

Many donors bringing flood relief material can get offended when victims ask “what are you bringing?” The donors should step into the shoes of the flood victims who may, for instance, have enough rice but need gas stoves and pots to cook the rice. Usually, there’s too much rice and not enough underwear, so it’s important to assess the needs and know how to distinguish between “wants” from “needs”.

There are three phases to disaster relief. In the first phase, flood victims and volunteers usually would like to have water, hot food and hot beverages. Next, they want to charge their phones, get shelter, fresh underwear and dry clothes. Finally, in the third phase, they have to clean up their homes or repair or rebuild the houses.

If unsorted clothes are heaped on them when they are in the first phase of recovery, they will just rummage through the pile to pick out a few dry clothes and throw back the rest, making a bigger mess of clothes.

Here’s a simple guide: Ensure that the clothes are:

1. Washed, clean, and in good condition.
2. Sorted into 3 main categories: Men, Women, Children.
3. Sorted into trousers, shirts, singlets.

Help out at the Salvation Army

Once you have accumulated enough clothes to warrant a trip, take them to the Salvation Army which is a voluntary organisation that will sell donated items and use these proceeds to fund charities.

If you don’t have any material to donate, you can donate your services to the Salvation Army: they are in dire need of volunteers to sort unwanted and donated clothes in their Subang Jaya warehouse.

Or if you prefer to do-it-yourself, you can also raise your own charity money by selling your unwanted goods at a portal like mudah.com or at Sunday boot sales at council-owned venues such as Jalan Teknologi in Kota Damansara, or the Shah Alam Stadium car park.

Generally, cash is the best solution for the relief of victims in the aftermath of a disaster when they have to start rebuilding their lives and those of their families and communities.

If you don’t believe in giving money, then volunteer your services to the Salvation Army via Lewis Voon (Whatsapp 016-928 7043), who is general manager of Red Shield Industries, the commercial platform of the Salvation Army Malaysia. He desperately needs volunteers to sort the clothes.

There are also super efficient NGOs such as the Rotarians, the various Sikh gurdwaras, the Buddhist Tzu Chi group, and Orang Asli NGOs such as the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns.

Volunteers are always welcomed. Every thoughtful bit counts. And if you’re a young IT geek, you could help by developing an app that matches donors and recipients. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.