KUCHING: Rumah Ngumbang folk in Nanga Sumpa Batang Ai in Sri Aman are praying that they would still have food in November, just before the supply donated by the public through non-governmental organisation (NGO) Hope Place Kuching dry up.
Volunteers unloading goods from longboats.
The longhouse folk receiving food items brought by Hope Place Kuching.
Food items being transferred from big-sized longboats to smaller ones as the water level gets lower upriver.
Members of the NGO preparing to load food into lorries at its premises in Jalan Dogan Batu Kawah.
The villagers, whose livelihood depends very much on paddy planting, have been finding it hard to rebuild their lives since their 24-door longhouse and their whole year stock of rice were destroyed in a fire on May 13 this year.
Without the stock, they could not even conduct bartering with traders or purchase other food items.
The fire, which killed two residents, had forced the longhouse dwellers to put up with neighbours before returning to the site to stay in makeshift or temporary shelters.
“They also need government assistance to enable them rebuilding the longhouse and starting life anew,” said Hope Place Kuching coordinator Kelvin Wan yesterday.
He thanked the state government for giving each affected family RM2,500 in June to enable them set up makeshift or temporary shelters.
Last Saturday, Hope Place volunteers and four officers from Sri Aman Welfare Department visited the longhouse to bring food items to the fire victims.
From here, it took them five hours by land to reach the Batang Ai jetty, and another two-and-a-half hours by longboat to reach the longhouse.
“We could go there again in November if there is enough support from the public as well as private and government sectors. The longhouse folk said they hoped to see us again, bringing along food. We believe that the food supply, as it is now, could last until November. Another similar amount of food supply — if it reaches them by November — could help sustain the folk there until next March,” said Wan.
“Not only did the fire destroy their one-year stock of rice, but it also left 150 people homeless. Actually each family would store up to 50 gunny sacks of rice — each weighing 50kg. Most of the families are farmers with monthly income below RM300 per household. Occasionally they would make money by renting their boats to tourists from a nearby homestay,” he added.
Wan said the NGO first visit to Rumah Ngumbang was on May 17, during which they provided the villagers with RM8,000 worth of food items.
Prior to that on May 14, the state Welfare Department provided each family RM150 as immediate relief to purchase food.
“We (Hope Place Kuching) subsequently received calls from them (villagers) saying that the food supply would run out by this month. So without any delay, we paid them a second visit last Saturday (Sept 13), bringing along public donations in the form of rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, biscuits, noodle, garlic and beverage powder apart from secondhand clothes. In the end, we incurred a cost of RM11,000 just to deliver these items to them,” he said.
“We also had to fork out around RM4,000 for transportation as we used private lorries and longboats to ferry the food items.
“Hopefully these can last them until end of November even though the farmers had started paddy planting. The harvest, sadly, can only be done by next year, between February and March,” Wan added.
Welfare officers from Sri Aman who followed the volunteers last Saturday were department head Mariam Ensabi, James Eusiewbon, Sawan Ladil and Bulin Balai, according to Wan.
Hope Place Kuching carries out aid deliveries once every two months because there are many families on their recipients’ list. Currently they are supporting more than 80 families across the state.
For more information on how you can help, the NGO can be contacted via 013-5672775 from 8.30am to 12.30pm Mondays to Fridays.
Members of the public who wish to donate are advised to request for receipts from the staff at Hope Place Kuching office, Jalan Dogan Batu Kawah here.
Those interested can also view Hope Place Kuching’s video clip at http://youtu.be/mLcgFRJIH-Y.