The Malaysian Red Crescent National Committee for Health & Community Services (MRC) has a motto: ”To serve the vulnerables efficiently, anytime and anywhere”, and this mission has been ably demonstrated during the MCO period here in Malaysia. While the rest of us have been observing the Stay at Home instructions, the MRC have been out daily to help provide food and medical equipment where needed. So, let’s look at just two days in the life of the MRC, the 24th and 25th May 2020.
The Eid Festival which makes the end of the fasting month of Ramadan is a high point of the year for Muslims, and no more so than those in Malaysia for which celebrations may continue for a whole month (see my 2019 blog ‘Ramadan and the Art of Porridge). But of course things had to be done a little differently this year. With the guidance of their Royal Advisor, DYMM Raja Zarith Sofiah binti Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah, Permaisuri Johor, and under the Chairmanship of Y.A.M. Tunku Idris Iskandar Alhaj Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, the National Committee for Community Services & Health distributed lunch packs to many homes, hospitals and people.
But first, let’s think about the logistics of this task. Someone has to prepare the food and a major donor at this time has been the Papa Tasty business at Austin Heights. Their chef is shown in the photo above after having prepared 500 lunch packs for staff at CIQ (Bangunan Sultan Iskandar, Customs, Immigration & Quarantine), Johor Bahru. Think of all the shopping you have to do to prepare 500 meals! And they do this and more every day. The MRC volunteers then helped to load up their vehicles with the food and then unload it all at CIQ. If you look at the MRC Community Services FB page, you will see that Papa Tasty has donated thousands of lunch packs, so if you live near Austin Heights, why not return their generosity and frequent their business once the restrictions are lifted? Check out their FB page here.
The first day of Eid (24th May) was a very busy day for MRC. My day started at CIQ with the arrival of 500 lunch packs from Papa Tasty so that agencies on duty that day could have a treat. It isn’t just the Immigration Officers who work here, but all the supporting staff and workers in the shops as well. The MRC volunteers have to be nimble on their feet to cope!
After the formalities, there wasn’t much time before all the lunch packs were whisked away and it was time to head to our next destination.
Next I visited a children’s home (Rumah Perlindungan Fitrah Qaseh) near Larkin where the request had been for 60 packs of KFC. Her Majesty had wanted to give people something to make them happy so donated funds to purchase the KFC, Pizza Hut, and other meals delivered by MRC to various recipients in the area.
So, in no particular order, here are photos to show you the other recipients of Her Majesty’s generosity today. The request here at Pertubuhan Pusat Jagaan Kebajikan Kesayangan Abadi, Johor (which roughly translates as Perpetual Care and Welfare Association) was for Pizza Hut.
At Persatuan Kebajikan Nur Ehsan Negeri Johor (Nur Eshan of Johor Welfare Home), the MRC delivered 165 packs of finger licking good KFC.
180 food packs were delivered to the children’s ward at Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Bahru (photo left) and 150 food packs and cakes to children, their care givers, doctors, nurses and general staff at Hospital Sultan Ismail, Johor Bahru (photo right).
And, 600 packs of Briyani rice were delivered for the foreign workers at Forest City.
And all that was just one day! The following day (25th May) I was out again and back at CIQ. This time, the MRC were delivering not only 500 lunch packs from Papa Tasty, but also bottled water and boxes of face shields etc. Today we had a VIP present who had already spent some time presenting gifts to CIQ staff from another donor. The gentleman in pink is Tuan Haji Tahir, Director of Johor Immigration Department.
And once again it was a matter of unloading the food as quickly as possible as there were a lot of hungry mouths to feed!
Here we see the Director of Immigration receiving goods from YB Dato Mohd Rashidi bin Hj Mood Noh (Deputy Chairman, National Committee for Community Services & Health).
And here is the Director of Immigration giving lunch packs from Papa Tasty to some of the different agencies within CIQ. And then it was time to leave and head to our next destination.
As you may have read in my previous blogs, the MRC works with many local NGOs and today we were going along to support Glocal Helping Hands and Ms. Caren at Taman Kebun Teh. This is an area of shack-like buildings dwaft by the modern high rise of Johor Bahru. Here they were distributing KFC to the local children, who were remarkably patient waiting in the heat of the day.
As you can see, the Malaysian Red Crescent National Committee for Health & Community Services are tremendously busy trying to fulfil their mission, ”To serve the vulnerables efficiently, anytime and anywhere”. They need funds to support all their varied activities so if you would like to help in any way, please contact this number 019 755 5600.
Click here to see more about the activities of the Malaysian Red Crescent.
Click here to return to Travels in Malaysia 2020.
Click here to return to Helen Gray’s homepage.