Rallying Malaysians to support Sabah
By Dhesegaan Bala Krishnan - October 23, 2020 @ 10:10am
KUALA LUMPUR: Heeding the #KitaJagaKita call, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are rallying Malaysians to shore up support for Sabah as the state battles the Covid-19 pandemic.
With cases continuing to soar in Sabah, Malaysians have been urged to pitch in to counter the state's massive shortfall in medical equipment and essential items.
Upcycled Shake founder Tressie Yap said the state's healthcare workers are in dire need of personal protective equipment (PPE).
"At the moment, we have some donors sponsoring only raw materials. Doctors and nurses from the public hospitals are calling for volunteers to help sew the PPE.
"In fact, a doctor from a public hospital recently appealed for volunteers to sew around 5,000 PPE daily.
"So far, we have only a few sewing teams on the ground, assembled ad hoc, whenever we get any calls to supply PPE," she told the New Straits Times.
HUGS PROJECT (Helping Unfortunate Groups and Society) founder Muhamad Laili Basir described the situation in Semporna, Sabah as a "ticking time-bomb".
"People in Semporna rely solely on the sea for survival. They live through each day with their daily income without having any savings.
"The Conditional Movement Control Order has affected both their income and source of food.
"Currently, the children there are short of formula milk and other food items as well," he said.
Laili, who is raising funds from Malaysians in the peninsula, said his team in Sabah is facing logistics issues in distributing the supplies on time.
He urged government agencies to work together with over 25 NGOs on the ground there to deploy aid to the underprivileged.
Laili said the volunteers in Sabah also lacked PPE and this exposed them to the risk of contracting the virus.
"So we definitely welcome more food, face masks and PPE supplies to carry on humanitarian work on the ground."
Likewise, Dignity for Children Foundation (Dignity) is calling on Malaysians to sponsor PPE sets for frontliners in Sabah.
"We are looking to send 2,000 sets of PPE to Sabah. Each set comprises two boot covers, one gown and one headgear. Each set costs RM25 including materials and logistics.
"To date, Dignity has received donations to produce 500 sets of PPE suits. The suits are sewn by those from the B40 and migrant communities working at Dignity's social enterprise arm, sew X," it said in a statement.
Malaysians interested in contributing can do so by logging on to https://cutt.ly/dignity. For further details, they can contact 018-789 6206.