“Due to the MCO, many people in Malaysia have been affected and lost their jobs. Unfortunately, the refugee community has been particularly hard hit, and groups such as the Chin Refugees cannot receive any governmental support.”
With RM11,855 raised as part of the food drive campaign, our Grade 11 student Asha O. proactively took things into her own hands and has done a fantastic job for the Chin Refugee Community during the Movement Control Order (MCO). Asha has already been working with the Chin refugees as part of her CAS project since April 11 under the guidance of her supervisor, HS teacher Amy Popovitch. , and decided to initiate this campaign when the MCO came into effect.
Asha continued, “We had to organize this experience fairly quickly as the food needs were urgent. So far, 38 people have donated, with the total fundraised being RM11,855. Donations have been coming in since April 12, 2020, and the plan is to run the campaign until there we have around RM2,000 to RM2,500 worth of groceries each week for about eight weeks”.
Asha chose to concentrate this food drive on the Chin community in Cheras; as a family friend, Peter, who runs the Chin Student Organisation (CSO) in Cheras, had reached out to her and her family about the current circumstances the Chin refugees were facing. “He told us that the Chin families were struggling even to afford food, and some are forced to eat only rice and salt.”
Each week Asha will purchase the groceries online, and her father then collects them from the grocery store – dropping them off later at the Chin refugee learning center. Peter then would distribute the food based on the family’s needs. “Each week, the groceries change slightly based upon the feedback from the families, such as the types of vegetables, or baby care needs like formula.”
If you’d like to donate to Asha’s fundraising project, visit this link here where you can choose from a selection of different food bundles you wish to donate, or you can pledge any amount you desire.
Once again, thank you, Asha, for all the hard work and the best of luck on raising the much-needed funds!
