Skilled volunteers: Muhammad Alif (left) fixing a refrigerator at SK Kota Raja with his course mates.
MUAR: For Muhammad Alif Danial Yusni, the chance to lend a hand to a flood-stricken town also helps him improve his skills in electronics.
The 22-year-old student, along with 12 of his classmates from Alor Gajah National Higher Skills Youth Institute, were sent to assist in a post-flood relief mission in Panchor yesterday.
“I volunteered to join the mission because it not only allows me to spread kindness but also sharpen my skills in wiring and electronics.
“We are tasked with checking on and repairing the electrical goods of a flood-hit school here.
“Since we are completing our certificate in three-phase wiring from the institute, the chance to go to the ground and work on such problems is a good way for us to prepare ourselves for the working world,” he said when met at SK Kota Raja here.
Muhammad Alif said this was the second time he joined such an initiative through the institute; the first was in Melaka last year.
This time, he and his classmates were divided into three groups with specific duties – one was tasked with fixing the water pumps in the school, another to check on the electrical sockets, and the third to fix refrigerators and other electrical appliances.
“It is a completely different experience from learning in a classroom.
“Here, we have to figure out the root cause of the damage ourselves, find ways to fix the damage and decide if the items are worth replacing,” he said.
Muhammad Alif added that as someone who had also experienced the devastation of floods himself, he understood how important such assistance was to those affected.
“My own house was also hit by floods about two years ago. Although it was not as bad as the ones here, it was enough to damage most of the electrical appliances we had.
“Thankfully, I knew how to fix some of them, though there were others that had to be sent for repair,” he recalled.
Muhammad Alif was among 200 volunteers from 11 institutes, a gencies and non-governmental organisations that have come together to help in a post-flood relief initiative in Panchor under the Johor Youth and Sports Department.
The department’s assistant director Nur Amalina Holidi, who also coordinates the relief effort dubbed Satria, said they focused on cleaning public places and government buildings.
“The mission started last Tuesday in Kota Tinggi. On Thursday, we continued the work in Pontian, Kluang and Segamat before moving on to Muar.
“Our target is to help clean public facilities such as schools, government offices, houses of worship as well as charity homes,” she said.
Nur Amalina noted that to date, some 2,000 volunteers from various groups have joined the mission in Johor.
“We also receive advice from the Disaster Management Committee of each district before cleaning these buildings. This is to avoid cleaning these places only to have our efforts washed away with a second wave of floods,” she said.
Earlier, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Adam Adli Abd Halim spent some time joining the volunteers in cleaning up SK Kota Raja and the Panchor Agriculture Office.
Also spotted lending a hand were Johor Jaya assemblyman Liow Cai Tung and Puteri Wangsa assemblyman Amira Aisya Abd Aziz.
