The Taste of Rice

The pandemic in Malaysia became very severe in July 2021. It peaked in August with nearly 25,000 new cases recorded in a single day. The Movement Control Order was lifted and reinstated repeatedly, impacting businesses and industries across the board. Low-income families were hit especially hard and had difficulties putting food on their table. A social movement called the White Flag emerged in the midst of these dire circumstances to enable struggling Malaysians to ask for help. Food banks were also set up to aid the needy. The Tzu Chi Kuala Lumpur and Selangor branch responded by launching a food care project for communities. From July to September, enough food to help 45,000 families was given out at more than 40 locations.

One of the mothers helped by Tzu Chi had been using flour to make various foods for her family, her rice supply long since depleted. At first her children dreamed of having rice to eat, but that dream nearly faded away as the pandemic dragged on and the family struggled to make ends meet. So, when the family received some food from Tzu Chi, among which was a five-kilogram (11-pound) bag of rice, they were overjoyed. When a volunteer phoned the family afterwards to check on them, the mother said happily, “My youngest daughter was so happy with the bag of rice, she used it as a pillow and fell soundly asleep.”

On September 10, volunteer Yap Poh Wee (葉寶蔚) received a message on her cell phone from a Burmese refugee, Samira: “Do you know of any place where I can apply for free food? We have only half a can of powdered milk left at home. My husband and I are waiting to get our second COVID shots, so we can’t go look for a job yet.” Upon receiving the message, Yap applied for Samira to a Tzu Chi food care project for refugees. As soon as she received the gift vouchers intended for Samira, she rushed to her home to deliver them.

Yap had also helped Samira obtain financial aid from Tzu Chi a couple of months earlier, in July. Since the pandemic was bad at the time, Yap knew that it would be a hassle to get food at a store, so when she and other volunteers delivered the financial aid to Samira, they also brought her food and other essentials donated from their own homes. They donated baby diapers, face masks, canned food, vegetables, instant noodles, and eggs. Samira burst into tears when she saw the gifts prepared by the volunteers.

Samira left Myanmar for Malaysia 13 years ago. She met her future husband in Malaysia and started a family with him. The couple never asked for help from others until the pandemic, which hit them hard. They couldn’t pay their rent and their children were starving. At their wits’ ends, they sought help from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “An official there called me back and told me there was a charity organization that could help me,” Samira recalled. She contacted the charity organization and was surprised by how quickly the volunteers arrived at her home. She was even more surprised when she learned that the organization was the very one and the same that had provided her free medical treatment at a free clinic in Kuala Lumpur.