FREE FOOD SOCIETY GIVES FOOD AID TO THE VILLAGERS OF TONG PELU, KEDAHTong Pelu is a small village in the mukim of Pedu, within the district of Padang Terap, Kedah. The nearest town is Kuala Nerang, 16 kilometers away. Tong Pelu is one of those villages that time seems to have forgotten. The name itself is Siamese and in Malay it means Kampung Sireh, presumably because of the abundance of the sireh plant here. It used to be the transit point for Siamese Muslims from Patani to go to Penang for their sea voyage to Makkah.
There are 400 homes in this village and for decades since Independence in 1957, this community still boasts the same single primary school it started off with. The school is called Sekolah Datin Fatimah, named after the country’s first woman cabinet minister. The school is the centre of activity in this village of rubber tappers, farmers, some teachers and a handful of private sector employees. What is interesting in this rural community is that many of the young people keep returning to the village, some to become teachers, others to care for aged parents and yet others to settle down in the village while working in town. With the current pandemic the story is the same: loss of jobs, inability to support the elders in the community, difficulties in supporting online education due to extremely poor internet service. Being a close-knit community, some of the teachers have taken it upon themselves to conduct classes in their homes for the children. FFS reached out to one of the teachers, Cikgu Bakri, to give food aid to the families there.
On July 24th, working with local NGO Kindness Malaysia – Kedah Kindness Malaysia Food Bank for logistics support, FFS sent food packs comprising basic necessities such as rice, sardines, salt, sugar, cooking oil, eggs, milk, instant noodles, soy sauce and bihun to 50 families-in-need identified by Cikgu Bakri’s team. FFS is thankful for the opportunity to help provide food aid to the people of Tong Pelu.
Other avenues to help this community include helping the children obtain online education facilities so that they are not left behind. Contact us at freefoodsociety@gmail.com if you would like to help this community.
