Spare a thought for those with nothing

 

While in lockdown, being stuck indoors and with the comfort of satellite TV to escape boredom, some of us tend to forget that outside the gates of our homes, there is an increasing number of Malaysians who are being made homeless or who have nothing to feed their families.

One may ask, “How did these people get this way?”

With the lockdown, many businesses have been forced to shut down. The owners have had to sack their workers or ask them to take six months of unpaid leave.

These owners still have to pay rental for their premises and other charges like rates and utilities. Some will have taken loans.

What does the owner of a bus company do with dozens of buses languishing in his yard? He can’t sell them as no one is buying.

Some vegetable farmers have had to destroy their crops because they cannot transport or sell them.

The employee who is jobless has nothing coming in at the end of the month. Those who had savings will probably have used most of the money by now. We have had to endure many lockdowns over the past 15 months.

People have house rents, car instalments, education loans and medical or other expenses. Many have joined the ranks of the jobless. This is one reason why the queues in soup kitchens have grown longer.

The number of urban poor has increased. The people one normally associate with soup kitchens are no longer restricted to those who are homeless. Many professional people are now on the list and many are too embarrassed to apply for help.

Well-to-do Malaysians who are able to weather the economic storm caused by the pandemic forget that people like single mothers, migrant workers or stateless citizens are among those left helpless by the crisis.

Stateless citizens cannot apply for food aid because they have no identification papers. Migrant workers who may have entered Malaysia legally may have been abandoned by their agents, who did not return their passports. What do these people do when the authorities stop them? They have no proper ID to prove who they are and many will end up being detained.

Many of those earning low wages used to clean toilets or helped in provision stores, washed dishes in mamak shops or performed menial tasks in other premises. They were not paid much but at least they had some money, which went towards food or rent.

But, with the lockdown, there are no jobs, so how are they to pay for food and rent, and their children’s schooling which involves owning devices such as smartphones?

Some may ask, “Why can’t they contact the welfare department?” With work from home as part of the norm, the telephone operators manning the switchboard at the welfare department are not functioning as normal. If the phone is finally answered, the chances are that the staff will say they are operating from home, and their services are limited.

So, if you are an elderly person, a disabled individual, a single mother or the head of a household with several mouths to feed, the welfare department’s response is of no help.

People are getting desperate. Some men are said to have abandoned their families because they cannot take the pressure. Think of the consequences for the remaining family members if the breadwinner is not around.

Last month, a Malaysian, Bruce, was quarantined at a hotel in KLCC when he returned to Malaysia to visit his sick sister. This quarantine served as the catalyst for the MakanKongsi 2.0 campaign.

Bruce contacted Thomas Fann for advice, as he had started the MakanKongsi 1.0 campaign in 2020. Fann introduced Bruce to the NGO called Engage and the social enterprise Good Kitchen (GK). With Bersih’s endorsement, Bruce, Engage and GK set up MakanKongsi 2.0, which was officially launched on June 7.

If you, or anyone you know, need help, contact MakanKongsi 2.0. No Malaysian, or foreigner, should go hungry. - FMT

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

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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