Lions and MRC partner to provide prompt aid for fire victims

0

IMMEDIATE AID: Sii (second left) and Dr. Sia (sixth left) with members of Lions Club and MRC with food supplies and daily necessities for the fire victims of Rumah Gaing.

KAPIT: When it comes to providing assistance to flood and fire victims and those who are critically ill, two NGOs in Kapit namely Lions Club and Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC) have led by example by providing aid within the shortest time possible.

When news of the fire at Rumah Gaing Nanga Tulit (Aug 25), which made 300 people homeless, reached these two NGOs they wasted no time arranging aid in the form of food and other daily necessities to reach the suffering.

President Lions Club of Kapit Sii Bang EE and chairman of MRC Dr. Sia Tih Kong and their members arranged for items including rice, noodles, Milo, sugar, milk powder, cups, plates, LPG cooking gas, cooking utensils, used clothes, blankets, nylon string, and canvas for temporary shelter to be sent immediately.

On hand to receive the items was Tuai Rumah Gaing himself who was grateful to both clubs for their generosity.

Assistance was also provided by Youth Affairs Adviser in the Chief Minister’s Department, Larry Sng who was the former assemblyman for N54 Pelagus last Sat who travelled in longboat to upper Rajang River just to visit the fire victims.

He spent the afternoon visiting the fire victims to console them, many who broke into tears seeing he had not forgotten them even though he was no long their ‘wakil rakyat’.

Later, he handed out a personal donation of RM 2000.

On the same Sat morning, Kapit MP Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi also paid a visit to the residents of Rumah Gaing Nanga Tulit. He gave out a total of RM32,000 to the 32 affected families.

The exact cause of the fire is yet to be released by the authorities but it is suspected that a kerosene lamp falling on a mattress sparked the fire that burst into flames and spread with the assistance of strong winds.

The wooden double floor building was completely engulfed in fire within minutes.

The victims were not able to salvage any of their valuables, only managing to save themselves as they watched inferno engulf the longhouse reducing it to ashes.

Nanga Tulit is only accessible by boat, some twenty minutes river journey up the Rajang.