THE ongoing lockdowns and stress from the Covid-19 pandemic are pushing people to “cheat” to get extra food aid or dry goods from those assisting them, donors have said.

This is one of the challenges they have faced, having started handing out food aid since the onset of the pandemic and the movement control order (MCO).

“In a pandemic like this, everyone needs to be considerate and unselfish. Many people need help and we need to share the aid around,” said M. Thabagaran, 30.

He started providing dry goods to needy families in the Klang Valley since the white flag campaign was launched at the end of June.

The premise of the campaign is people in need fly a white flag outside their home, and neighbours or associations will help them.

“I started this with two of my schoolmates after receiving a lot of information about families in need of help, especially foreigners. We used almost 90% of our own savings to help them.

“Almost every day we receive information about those who need help but the challenge is, we have to filter the information received.

“In many cases, we receive multiple requests from the same family, each using a different family member’s identity,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Thabagaran said that multiple requests from the same family showed that they were in a desperate situation, but their actions would deprive other families from getting help.

Charles Michael Soosai, 36, who runs a food basket campaign for refugee families in Penang and Kedah with his football club friends, also faced the same challenge.

“For Malaysians we can still verify personal information and addresses but for refugee families the challenge is bigger.

“Sometimes we will bring 50 food baskets to an area and when we get there, they will line up to pick up the food baskets.

“We will inform them in advance so that only one family representative takes the food basket.

“Sometimes we see more than two family members taking the basket, leaving other families with nothing.”

Meanwhile, a representative of the Jerantut Tamil Cultural Association in Pahang, A. Moganakumar, said the association started distributing food aid when the district became subject to the enhanced MCO.

“At first, the community here was ashamed to ask for help, but when word got out that neighbours started receiving help, the demand became high.

“Even well-to-do families began to ask without shame and some even ‘cheated’ by claiming to have lost their jobs just to get the food baskets.

“Aside from losing their job, they said the aid was for disabled or elderly family members, food shortages and various reasons. This means aid does not reach those who really need it,” he said.

In recent weeks, there have been social media videos showing people greedily grabbing all available stuff from food banks, leaving nothing available for others in need. – August 17, 2021.