Stories - Strangers offer help to victims

The muhibbah (unity regardless of race or religion) spirit could not be stronger during the tsunami disaster here, with strangers knocking on doors of wrecked homes in seaside villages to offer help. �Three Chinese men came with packets of food after the giant waves hit our village and asked whether we had eaten. They gave us rice, mineral water and fruits,� Kampung Tanjung Tokong resident Sharina Md Saad, 35, said yesterday. The mother of two had finished registering her youngest daughter Nur Izzah Nabila, seven, for Year One at SK Tanjung Tokong. The school also temporarily doubled up as a relief centre for the homeless victims. Her daughter was wearing an old faded uniform donated by strangers but Sharina did not mind as she rummaged among used clothes piled up at the school compound in search of a uniform for her Form One son.

Like Sharina, many affected parents at the village have more to worry about when the new school term starts tomorrow. Apart from SK Tanjung Tokong, SK Tanjung Bungah and SK Kuala Muda on the mainland had also been turned into relief centres. After the disaster struck, non-governmental organisations like the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Merits Society Malaysia had been at the forefront of humanitarian work offering emotional support, food, clothes and financial aid to victims at their homes or relief centres. Tzu-Chi volunteers armed with shovels, rakes and brooms trudged into wrecked villages to clean up the mud-caked houses and transfer crushed concrete and debris to the roadside for the local government workers to remove using trucks. A team from the Persatuan Kontraktor Perkhidmatan Pembersihan Pulau Pinang was also seen volunteering their services at Kampung Tanjung Tokong. Fishermen at the Tanjung Bungah fishing village near the new floating mosque praised the good work of the Tzu-Chi group and a Christian group who worked tirelessly to clean up their village without seeking any credit or publicity. �Strangers came to help us, yet our own village security and development committee did nothing but only showed their faces when the Prime Minister came to visit,� fisherman Rashid Tahir, 46, said with disappointment.



Source : The STAR