KUALA KRAI: SJKC Yuk Chai was not spared by the floods that hit the east coast recently. Waters rose to almost 12 ft in one of its blocks on Christmas Eve and it took three days for the waters to subside before the school could assess the damage.

One of the first tasks for the school was to clear out all the mud and silt that had been left by the receding flood waters. Lending them a hand here were 25 volunteers from the Eco World Foundation who spent three days at the school cleaning out the classrooms as well as other areas of the school.

Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Chairman of the Foundation along with Dato’ Chang Khim Wah, President & CEO of Eco World Development Group Berhad (EcoWorld) today arrived in Kuala Krai to give the volunteers some moral support.

Lee and Chang visited the school and also handed over some 450 school bags along with stationery for the students when they start school tomorrow (Sunday). Also present was Dato’ Captain (Rtd) Liew Siong Sing, CEO of the Eco World Foundation.

“I am deeply impressed with the dedication, commitment and team spirit shown by our volunteers who were given very short notice before we mobilised them. What is even more touching to me is that they are staying in Kampung Renok Baru in Gua Musang and have been travelling about an hour and a half every day to get to the school in Kuala Krai to do the cleaning,” shared Lee.

Pn Lee Fa Nyet, Penolong Kanan Ko-Kurikulum of the school said she was most thankful to the volunteers and was impressed by their speed in getting things done. “It is heartening to see such a ‘muhibbah’ team here and everyone is working so hard. I am just amazed by their team spirit,” she added.

The school was facing a shortage of water and was finding it tough to do any cleaning. “When the Eco World volunteers came they not only brought with them cleaning tools and materials but two water tankers with water jets. This has helped us with our cleaning efforts tremendously,” she added. The water tankers were mobilised from EcoWorld’s project all the way from Semenyih, Selangor and can carry 1,000 litres each.

Tan Sri Lee said the Foundation identified SJKC to render assistance to because it was a medium-sized school and something that the number of volunteers could manage with. “We would like to help more people but are limited with the number or manpower that we have at the moment. Nonetheless, this first time effort on our part helping in disaster relief has shown us that the team can handle situations like this and we are looking forward to growing our volunteer pool to have more people to mobilise when the occasion calls for it,” said Lee.

The Foundation is looking at forming the Eco World Skuad Bantuan Bencana very soon to offer the right training to all volunteers so that they are well equipped and prepared to render assistance whenever needed, Lee added.