All these started with just a simple liner "Feeling like just going over to give a little help to the flood victims, instead of staying back here with all the petty issues that's not necessary at all".
Let's skip that part and fast forward.
After a few days, my fiance just randomly asked me if I would like to tag along with him if we found some people who are heading to the flood areas to help the victims. We didn't really have a concrete plan that time. Initially we wanted to head to the more serious place and stay over a few nights, however due to safety concerns, he decided that we should just do a one day trip down to Temerloh with the assistance of Hezry since his family and there's some locals that would be able to guide and assist us.
Why Temerloh? This place is not the worse affected area, however there are people who are stranded in their house without electricity and water supplies. They might not have enough supplies if they're not staying in the relief centres and there's villages that needs boat to transport such goods to them.
Photo credits: Hezry
In just 2 days and a posting on Facebook, with some mutual friend's sharing, we got almost RM1,000.00 of donations from friends around and many who offered to purchase goods, supplies and medicine for us to bring over there. We rush off from work on new year's eve to collect the truck from a kind soul who offered to lend us her truck with a full tank of diesel and smartag with credits and started the collections from friends all around PJ. Some of our friends & my family offered to send straight to my house.
Collecting & fetching supplies during NYE
With a house full of supplies and goods, we needed many hands to assist us in the packing. We have things ranges from portable gas stove, biscuits, milo, milk power for adults & kids, sanitary pads, pampers, assorted canned food, clothings, mineral waters, bread, rice, medicine, first aid kits, toiletries etc. My family gladly offered to come over to lend their helping hand for nearly 4 hours just before the clock hits 12a.m. where everyone would be like wishing each other 'Happy New Year' and looking at fireworks. Finally, with everyone's help, we managed to categorised and separate the things into two different batches as there will be two groups heading to two different places tomorrow. And I'm thankful for my aunt who kindly loan out the place and had to clean up after all the packing was done up.
Family members who gladly offered to come over to help and my house looking like a temporary relief center
The night continues on for my fiance and myself as we needed to use the donated funds to purchase the goods that we are lacking. We headed to NSK as that's the only hypermarket that's opened for 24 hours. We stocked up supplies of instant noodles, milo, towels, torch lights, batteries and medicine. Finally, we managed to reach home about 3a.m. in the morning with the last minute packing. Headed to bed right away as we will have a long day ahead.
Friend who sent over about 15 portable gas stoves with refills
Departed and met Hezry at our meeting point in Gombak, on the way to Bentong. Upon arriving the petrol station, I was really touched to see the amount of people and volunteers that swamped the station. And everyone put on a smile on their face, with all the different groups ranges from soldiers, bomba and individual groups. We all knew one thing, we are here to help and we stand as 1Malaysia disregarding our races.
All the trucks at the gas station gathering to depart to different affected areas in our country
As we approached Bentong's toll, there were only 1 lane that's in operations and all the cars were stopped to question where they are heading, then the second toll at Lanchang where we see lesser and lesser cars around and looks like we are the only ones on the road now. Finally we approached the toll close to Temerloh, however that toll was closed as we can see ahead that the whole highway was flooded with water. We used an alternative road and we arrived at our first destination which is a mosque.
We dropped off some goods here for them and they offered us lunch even with limited supplies. We could not bare to reject them, so we just took a little feeling bad that there's not enough for everyone. They were extremely thankful and they treated us so well that they don't even let us wash the dishes.
All they had for their lunch was just simple egg curry, vege and nangka. They still have water supplies, therefore cooking and washing was still possible.
We hold our breath for seconds to cross this road which was half washed away by the water
We bid farewell and continued our journey to the other part of Temerloh. I didn't manage to take down all the names of the villages as we were busy distributing goods. We arrived at one of the distribution centers and there were army delivering supplies to them. So we headed elsewhere and delivered home to home instead. These people are the one that's still in their homes, maybe the relief centers were full, some of their homes were fine but there's no electricity and water. Therefore, they actually don't receive much goods or there's not even enough in the relief centers for everyone.
House submerged under the water, there were dead chicken and animal corpse in the water
Sunning some clothes after the flood
Family feeling thankful after receiving the goods
Hezry's relatives and friends gladly offered to tag along with us to guide and speak to the locals to ensure that supplies are distributed fairly according to their needs.
Yup that's one big box of sanitary pads that we have on the truck
After that, we entered another village called Kerdau which the access of the roads are flooded. We see more houses that's affected by the flood and some washed away into the river. During the distribution, there were individuals who were thankful and said they had enough and we should save some for the rest who needed more supplies. However, there's also individual that comes around looting stuffs following us every house we stopped and kept saying that he don't have enough for everything.
The water level rises pretty quickly upon approaching evening time and we couldn't head too far to Jerantut or we might be stranded. Here's a video of how we barely made through the flood.
Along the way, we have also met many other kind souls that's also distributing goods to the villagers
Finally, after a whole long tiring day, we manage to distribute all our goods to all the villagers. The remaining ones like medical supplies and torch lights were placed on the collection point whereby the villagers will use boats to transport the goods to those who are stranded. Not all the boats were equipped with motors, a guy was using 'dayung' with a full load of stuffs to get into the affected areas.
As for the other group of us, they have also dropped their supplies in two different areas. Both these areas can't be access by roads any longer and boat was their only means to transport supplies to the villagers. I really can't imagine how they live on for nearly a week without proper electricity and water supplies.
Both the teams have come to an end of the one day mission during late evening, we headed back to KL before the sunset. We were very glad that there's not even a single drop of rain on that day which means the water levels should be going down slowly.
Rangy decided to leave the car number plate behind as souvenirs after going through the waters. Here marks the end of our journey, feeling extremely tired and exhausted, but everyone have returned home feeling great that we manage to lend a helping hand to the victims. However, these are really just a very small part that we have done. There's still a lot out there that still needs help. Really glad to see how our country united and came together as one during such times, many large corporation, both government and private sponsored goods or make use of their logistic lorries to deliver goods.
The purpose of writing this post is not about glory or having others to thank us for what we have done. This is just to share and let others know and as an encouragement for the younger generation to come to step out of their comfort zone sometimes to help others in need. Nowadays, how often we see others giving priority seats or even helping a blind man to cross the road which what the basics that we have learned in primary school. Maybe if everyone could be just a little selfless at times, this may change a lot of things.
We would like to personally extend our gratitude towards those who have donated in terms of goods and cash:
Aaron, Maddie, Shan, Bryan, K.Sian, Elaine, my aunt, Ann T., W.Ling, Suzanne O., H.Loon, Patrick, Siang T., Michelle, Abrenda, H.Ming, Lily C.,S.Pei, S.Mei, Lillian, Justin, Pui Mun (If we missed out anyone, please do refresh my memory).
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