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POHD rushes to help flood victims |
| Posted by Diocese of Penang (pgdiocese) on Nov 29 2010 |
28 November 2010
After learning that the flood waters in Kedah were slowly receding, the Penang Office for Human Development (POHD) swung into action by launching the Kedah Flood Relief Operation. An immediate cash of RM10,000.00 was handed to the parish priest (Fr Vincent Paul) of the Church of St Michael, Alor Setar, Kedah on 8 Nov.
On 9 Nov, two staff. Stanley and Kevin, from POHD, with 4 volunteers in Penang, made a trip to Alor Setar. They brought with them food supplies like rice, bee hoon, Milo, milk powder, biscuits, canned food and some toiletries.
On 10 Nov, these six volunteers were joined by 16 students from the Northern University Catholic Society, UUM. All together, the 22 volunteers had helped worked at seven households, 3 of which, were Muslim households. They sorted out the furniture and other household items, to see what can be salvaged and what to throw away. After which, they cleaned and washed the houses. They also gave food supplies to over 20 families.
Through the contact of Fr Vincent Paul and BEC leaders of the parish, they managed to locate four Catholic homes to do the cleaning up and washing of their houses. They also helped to throw away damaged furniture’s and other stuffs.
One of the Catholic homes they helped, was Mr & Mrs Eddie Siew, in their 60s. Eddie said he was tremendously grateful to the POHD Team for the work they did at his house. They worked near 12 hours at his house. Everything in his house seemed to be damaged, so the Team helped to throw away all the stuffs, and they washed and cleaned his house to look as good as new. Eddie was also grateful for the emotional support the Team gave him and his wife as they were at a loss on what to do and were feeling very down.
“I’m not really a man of faith” said Eddie, “I was at the lowest ebb of my life when the tragedy strike. I thought God had forgotten about me until he send these six’angels’. It restore my faith. Then, call it a miracle or what, all my important documents were lost but my daily missal, prayer book and rosary were found and not damaged.”
Vilerry Mollon, 20, one of the UUM student , said that he was glad to be able to do a good deed, together with his university mates.
“I feel very touch seeing what these people had been through” he said, “It was a privilege for me to be able to help them. Most of my friends here have no experience at all doing relief work for disaster and they were thankful for this opportunity. Beside, getting together like this is a sign of fellowship too which is enjoyable and fun for us!”
One of the volunteer, who went on the first day, Ezekiel Raj said he did not hesitate when was asked to volunteer, as he was curious to see the situation there. However, when he was there, reaching out to those affected victims, he felt very 
rewarded.
“At the end of the day I slept with a smile on my face knowing that, God had made way for me to be a part in his plan to make his kingdom real on earth. What we did was so small compared to the entire damage we had seen, but I believe to those we did reach out it made a lot of difference. I thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity to be of service.”
Kevin, the other staff from POHD said that they never fail to start and end the day with prayer.
“It’s the prayer that motivate us to keep going.” he said, “I feel so blessed to be able to help these people. One Muslim lady broke down in tears when she received the food supply from us. I also feel the Holy Spirit is working in us. Although we felt tired after cleaning a house but when we wanted to move on to the other house, surprisingly we felt very much energized and I believe it is the Holy Spirit in us that gives us this energy.”
Stanley realized the importance of BEC at that time. He said there were many parishioners’ houses which were badly hit by the tragedy but because many were not registered with the BEC, it was difficult to contact them.
“ The houses that we went to were those active parishioners who were active in church ministries and who participates in BEC. Through contacts from the parish priest and area leaders. In times like this when a tragedy strikes, BEC comes in very useful, as BEC helps organized the people.
In another two weeks time, POHD will be back at Alor Setar to access the situation and continue further with any relief work.
- by Lucia Lai
(also, read the article in UCAN)
Last changed: Nov 29 2010 at 11:25 AM
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