Yayasan Suria JB(YSJB) – Interview over Swedish Radio (Foreign news department) on white flag movement in Malaysia.
This was about an article in “The South China Morning Post” regarding the above(#benderaputih) and the economic impact on the low-income group (B40) as a result of the lockdown.
Hear this radio interview https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/vita-flaggor-ber-om-hjalp-i-malaysia?fbclid=IwAR1heysgfE7XwUUEXXQI35OoDjI3t4bJkM6xD2jO7ybdIOQptPxTeGFgTfw
YSJB is providing for some 50 families daily as the pleas for barang dapur (household provisions) are growing louder each passing day and also bringing some 300 packets of cooked food for Poor & Needy/Homeless.
A lot of logistics involved, from sourcing for goodies (some are sponsored and some purchased), packing and volunteers running from houses to houses zig- zagging across JB going as far as Kota Tinggi, Kulai and Pontian.
Not only that, we are also helping them to pay for water/electricity bills/house and room rentals, its a vicious cycle with no end in sight at times, nevermind we do what we can at this moment.
I dread the day when our supporters/donors themselves pull out due to the inabilities to do so as they themselves are affected by this economic situation, then what will happen to the Needy?
I fear for the worse as there are reports now of more and more people stealing from provision shops/minimarts. But what are we going to do when people are hungry and have no food to eat? Not because they are lazy but simply because of the scarcity of jobs with many businesses closing down.
Hunger knows no bound and personality I don’t have any solutions to this predicament we are facing right now.
Nevertheless, NGOs like us plough on daily, starting our work from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm, occasionally going over board until midnight for some of us when people tell you they haven’t eaten for a day. It is a never ending task for the ‘runners'(boys who send food) but the big question is ‘Bro, please have enough stock in your store, otherwise how are we going to run?’.
Frantically pleading for help from donors, ‘so far so good’, at times we got to run to supermarts to replenish the stock when insufficient.
Worst is when people appear at our store in Jalan Bakawali, Taman Johor Jaya pleading/crying and refusing to go away.
I am glad to report that this bunch of volunteers have great passion in their work, thank God. My only fear is over worked and burnout, we encouraged each other, putting jokes and fun into our work serving with L
ve & Humility in line with YSJB’s motto.
Many thanks to our many partners/sponsors/individuals, too many to mention, who have made this mad race against time feeding the Hungry out there, thank you, thank you!
We sincerely hope to keep on doing what we are doing as long as we can, barring availability of continuous funding.