A Simple Student’s Dedication Impacts the Lives of Many during the Global Pandemic
Ahmadul Kobir, Malaysia
When the Covid-19 outbreak occurred earlier this year, what started off as a localised infection has put the global community in a rude shock as infection cases quickly escalated within weeks into a global pandemic as the novel coronavirus crossed geographical borders and spreads quickly within international communities.
Malaysia was one of the countries which was not spared the threat of the novel coronavirus. As early as mid-March 2020, the Malaysian government had to implement the Movement Control Order (MCO) to help mitigate the spread of the virus with strict measures such as the restriction of movement and the momentary closure of the economic, education and social sectors. The stringent measures to contain the devastating impact of the health crisis has seen how lives and livelihoods were made to balance on the tightrope of survival.
Being one of the established hubs of education within the region, the sizable international student body was also directly impacted by the effects of the pandemic. As many economies came to a rude halt, families back home were doing their best to provide for their children who were abroad in Malaysia. The stringent rules of the MCO has also caused some strain in the daily lives of the students as they faced challenges in their movement and access to daily necessities like food and groceries. Some of the students were also unable to receive money from their parents on time while money changing facilities which were in operations were few and scattered.
Responding to the urgent need to help the international students caught in this difficult circumstance, a few organizations both within and out of Malaysia swiftly stepped in to provide aid in forms of cash and food supplies. It is proudly noted that the said humanitarian campaign is student led effort championed by a very resourceful Bangladeshi student named Bristi Khatun. Currently enrolled in Sunway University’s BSc (Hons) in Culinary Management programme, Bristi’s education background and understanding of the importance of food and proper nutrition has become her main motivation to ensure that fellow students like her have access to quality and nutritious food and produce despite the constraints emerging from the pandemic situation.
According to Bristi, the initiative started when she was approached by the desperate pleas for help from her juniors at SEGi College in Kota Damansara where she is an alumni. Upon receiving desperate texts from her juniors pleading for assistance as they were experiencing hardships with no money nor food and were on the verge of deprivation, Ms. Bristi knew that she had to find a way to help them even if it means that it has to come from her own pockets first. Subsequently, as the need grew bigger, she worked to expand the size of the funds through the networks that she has built from personal connections in the few years of being in Malaysia.
She contacted Datuk Simon V. Varunamegam, Chairman of Yayasan Harapan Negara who was indubitably willing to offer help and show remarkable support for the students in need in the forms of monetary assistance. During the MCO, Ms. Bristi and Datuk Simon compiled the list of students and identified their locations. Wasting no time, food items were quickly purchased and packed by the dynamic duo. However, due to the movement restrictions imposed during MCO, they had the items delivered through the services of Grab, a local e-hailing service. This guaranteed that the food items made their ways to each receiving deserving doorstep to sustain the recipient for at lease two to three weeks.
Each food package includes 5kgs of rice, lentils, cooking oil, eggs, sausages, pasta, noodles, milk, canned food and a variety of five types of vegetables. Eventually, similar assistance was also extended to the migrant workers who equally were facing a difficult time as they were unable to earn any income as there was no work.
Bristi’s efforts were also supported by Ms. J. Shamala Kirishnan who was her former internship and boss as well as the Director for Human Resources for Malaysia, Philippines at Hilton Kuala Lumpur . The Human Resource team at the hotel also provided enormous financial aid in contributing to the continuity of this project.
The project also caught the attention of Mr Mahbub Alam Shah, Director of Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Through the unconditional generosity of Sir Mahbub, many Bangladeshi students and their families received monetary aid relieving them from the daily strains for survival. Bristi also worked with Mr. Ahmadul Kobir who is the Reporter for Daily Jugantor, Jamunatv & jago news24.com to collect each student’s academic information and details. All in all, 3700 individuals has benefited from this project, consisting of students and migrant workers from 56 nationalities including Malaysians.
Bristi is intending to re-implement this project from the 25th of October following the reintroduction of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in Klang Valley. To date, she has managed to help ten students with monetary aid and food packages. She has also mobilised a food donation to an orphanage.
If you would like to support Bristi’s efforts, please contact her at [email protected]
