DONOR fatigue and continuous lockdowns have left refugee families in dire straits and the aid organisations helping them strapped for cash.

Aid workers told The Malaysian Insight that while requests for help are never-ending, funds are quickly depleting.

Some refugee non-profits, such as the Alliance of Chin Refugees (ACR), has put in place a system to screen for the most vulnerable among those who come with requests for food aid.

ACR founder James Bawi Thang Bik said the organisation does do not advertise aid availability and distribution and serves only the truly desperate who call for help.

“What we do now is that we select the most vulnerable group to support since funding is very limited this time.

“We avoid publicity in distributing support so as to control massive requests for aid because we know that if they are very desperate, they will contact us for help,” he said, adding that donations have dropped 60% since the first movement control order (MCO) that began mid-March last year.

The ACR team does a vulnerability assessment before prioritising the refugee families to support.

“If possible, our staff will visit them and check their situation.

“It is really sad but this is the best solution for our very limited resources,” he said.

ACR volunteers are refugees who assist 17 sub-communities in Malaysia.

In the one month month since the nationwide lockdown began on June 1, James said ACR has helped 121 families.

Beyond Borders founder Mahi Ramakrishnan said donor fatigue is kicking in as people have been giving since last year.

“Donors are also scared for themselves given the state of the economy and the continued lockdown,” Maha said.

She said she is now relying on friends and contacts on Facebook to rally food support for affected communities.

Requests for cooked meals and food provisions have gone up five-fold, she added.

“We can’t manage the phone calls and text messages from refugees and migrant workers.

“It’s terrible to listen to people saying that they haven’t eaten in days or that they have no milk for their babies.”

Beyond Borders operates on a first come, first served basis.

“We had a list to follow but this doesn’t work when we get calls from community leaders saying people are starving or senior citizens are at risk,” said Mahi.

Sentul-based Dignity for Children Foundation in Kuala Lumpur prioritises the families of refugee and urban poor children who come to its education centre.

Dignity’s head of marketing and communications Liew Tong Ngan said while these families are their priority, the organisation is also working to reach the community at large.

“We seek contributions from the public, companies and organisations to support our distribution work,” Liew said.

Liew added that several of their students are living in Mentari Court and PJS8 which are subject to enhanced MCO (EMCO) from July 1 for two weeks.

He also admitted that the organisation is struggling with funds, with only 50% from learning centre fees collected in June as many parents find it more and more difficult to meet the commitment.

The social enterprises that Dignity runs to employ refugees and migrants, are also badly affected.

“Our food enterprise, eat X, can only do take away business and our hair salon, cut X, has been closed,” Liew said.

The difficulty of aid groups in deciding who to help amid a shortage of resources as the lockdown drags on was highlighted by Refuge For The Refugees (RFTR) co-founder and director Heidy Quah.

She wrote on Facebook on June 28 of pleas for help from over 1,500 families in the past week.

The RFTR hotline has been inundated with calls every 10 minutes and more than 100 text messages in a day, she added.

“I cannot imagine having to beg and plead in such a way,” Quah said in her post which has been shared more than 2,800 times.

In an update on June 30, she thanked donors for sending in funds at short notice.

Quah said that it costs RM60 per grocery pack for each family that they reach. – July 3, 2021.