The one thing I found myself thinking about as I went down to Kota Tinggi a day before the 2^nd flooding was, “it could happen to anyone of us”. Though living in fear of another flooding, the town folks of Kota Tinggi had no where else to go. Many of us would have wondered, ‘Hey, just leave the flooded town for a week or two and go back when it’s all settled and back to normal’. How easy it was for us to have thought that. But then we realized, where else could they go? This was their ‘home’, this was all they had, and this was their livelihood.

Doing charity work has never been easy. It’s too heart-wrenching some would say. And worse, you’re left wondering if what you did made any impact or difference because it’s just not enough. There’s just so much to do. Do you remember the last time you gave a dollar to the blind man walking with a cane and the ‘makcik’ in tow selling tissue paper as you’re happily sipping your bowl of ‘mee kari’ at the hawker centre? Or the haggard-looking old man stretching his hand to you as he lay with his make-shift bed of carton boxes on the five-foot walkway at SS2?

So often have we brushed them aside with looks of disdain and with no remorse, as if they’re not there, as if they’re invisible.  Sometimes I wonder why it is so hard for us to do charity. Is it because we have to go out of our way, out of our comfort zones, and out of our norms, not wanting to be inconvenienced? Too often when we think of charity, we think of big mega fund-raisers organized by big corporations to donate thousands for a noble cause. Nothing wrong with that. But what I believe is wrong is for us to shrug off and say, “Let others who have more means do it since I can’t do much.” They say charity begins at home. I say charity begins from the heart. When we give, we give not because we have to. We give because that’s all there is to do. The moment we start thinking of our actions and its consequences, be it good or bad, we begin to make better decisions that will affect not only ourselves but the people around us. I know for certain that words alone will not be able to express the pain, suffering and loss the flood victims in Kota Tinggi felt. Neither is our actions justified to warrant such words of thanks or gratitude from them. For us, it’s that little thing we could do to help in whatever way can. To live up to our Code, to be a true ‘Keeper of the Flame’, and as such I’d like to leave you with a thought:
I am only one
But still I am one
I can’t do everything
But I can do something
And because I can’t do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Faithful transport on standby. The amount of rubbish cleared after the first flooding.

Smiley faces even when times were tough!

Sorting out the food supplies to distribute to the families in Kota Tinggi. Preparing packet loads of food supplies.

Braving the rain to reach to those who are in need. The little something we did may not mean a lot but to those in need, it is God-sent.