WHEN Margaret Chang retired, she never imagined her services would be needed in a pandemic.
Together with close friends from Sri Hartamas and Mont Kiara, they decided to band together. They would provide food for the frontliners at Sungai Buloh Hospital. This is in return for all the frontliners' hard work and sacrifices made to help those infected with Covid-19.
What was the catalyst for this act of kindness? What made them reach out to all the frontliners working day and night at the hospital, many of them without proper food and rest?
Chang said what touched their hearts was a letter she came across in the media. She had shared it with her close friends, George Juberi, Ungku Shakirah Raman, Jacqueline Jamasji and Roselina Yusoff.
All coming from diverse backgrounds, they formed a motley group. George had lived and worked in Melbourne as a child psychologist, Shakirah in sales, Jacqueline in management and Roselina, a teacher. But Chang felt she could leverage all their strengths for the project.
The aforementioned letter was titled “A tired doctor from Sg Buloh asks to be treated humanely”. The young doctor shared his days of exhaustion and was at the end of his patience with the conditions of work, with long hours, no rest, and little or no meals. The unnamed doctor in his letter pleaded for some relief in the form of better conditions. It was heart-breaking for Margaret and her friends, and it galvanised them into action.
“Let’s do something about this,” the group of five collectively agreed. They were familiar with each other as they hiked almost every Sunday at Bukit Kiara. They had been friends for more than 10 years and had many shared experiences together.
Chang, the “boss among the bosses”, became the coordinator for the group and laid out the roadmap for the whole exercise.
First, a letter was prepared and sent out to all their friends and “friends of friends” and the response was extraordinary. In two weeks, RM30,000 was raised. The second stage was to contact the Covid Response Unit at Sungai Buloh Hospital and do a check of what exactly was needed. The doctor on duty said dry food plus water and the group then moved into action.
Margaret said they had a two-pronged approach.
One was to provide food and drinks to the frontliners and the other, which was equally important, was to reach out to vendors in need of an income and help. Chang and the team had noticed many vendors, including food trucks and caterers, struggling. So they carefully went through a list and picked out vendors in need.
Thus far, they had ordered food from single mothers, a burger vendor, a food truck operator and a caterer.
“Many of these vendors have small margins of profit. When the pandemic hit, they lost a lot of their business and were struggling to make ends meet,” said Chang. The team took on various roles, Shakirah and Jacqueline took charge of donations and expenses, respectively.
George was the ‘professional’ cook as he had the experience of preparing meals for large numbers. He had cooked meals for 200 poor families and individuals, comprising OKU, those in the B-40 group and any NGOs that needed help. George had done this during the first movement control order (MCO) in his kitchen, three times a week. After packing it, YB Senator Ras Adibah Radzi, representative of the OKU community, would arrange transport.
George said: “I had cooked all sorts of food ranging from pasta to fried rice, fried mee and even roti jala. So I could use that experience to order from various vendors and negotiate reasonable prices.”
Thus, everyone had their roles and each of them took on their share of the responsibilities.
“We had to order the food, load it up in our cars and then drive it to Sungai Buloh Hospital. We do this three times a week for 150 frontliners and ensure that we keep to our timetable,” shared Chang.
"The vendors were kind and appreciative of our efforts to engage with them. Many gave us extras over and above the order as a gesture of goodwill and indeed it was a good feeling."
Chang and her team had a message for all Malaysians.
“Our wish for CNY is that all Malaysians form teams in their community or among friends. They can take turns and reach out to help the frontliners as well as other groups in need of help – whether it’s the old or the young who are vulnerable during this pandemic.
“To us, it has been a very fulfilling journey and we hope others will follow suit and help others in need. After all, CNY is about family. As Malaysians, we are one big family and we need to celebrate this by helping those in need." – The Vibes, February 12, 2021
