Heavy task for Sabah aid workers

Irwan Majid5 years ago3rd Apr 2020Pictures

Rural covid021 — Aid workers who have to send food to villagers in Sabah do not have an easy task as they have to travel through thick forests to reach their homes. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Irwan Majid, April 3, 2020.

FOR some aid workers in Sabah, sending food items to the needy is not an easy task.

It means walking on foot for kilometres through forests and slopes in the state’s heavily forested and hilly terrains for hours.

This is especially true to several aid workers assigned to send supplies to the villages in the sub-urban districts of Penampang during the movement-control order (MCO.

It took a three hours walk for them to reach Kg Moyog, Kg Mongkusilad, Kg Koliasan, Kg Malapi, Kg Mompoit, Kg Kipandi, Kg Lombiding and Kg Tadong-adong.

These aid workers did so even with the heavy loads to their backs as vehicles could not reach the villages.

Even more challenging is that the villagers’ houses were built far apart from each other and recent rainfall over Sabah’s west coast districts the last two days have made the journey on foot more slippery and dangerous.

Under the MCO, many Penampang folks in far-flung villages are not able to travel to town or nearby sundry shops for supplies.

Many of them are also poor and without proper transportation even if they could do so during normal days.

It rests on members of the Village Community Management Councils to send food aid to the villagers. – April 3, 2020.