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Malaysia

Surge of Support Following Malaysia’s Devastating Floods

As Malaysia battles the worst flooding in decades, UNHRD Partners including ASEAN, Shelterbox, JICA, UNICEF have sent 108 MT (worth around US$800,000) of critical supplies to the hardest-hit area, Kelantan, from the depot in Kuala Lumpur.

In addition, Qatar Charity has donated tents (worth over US$100,000) to the Malaysian Government for their response efforts, which were flown from the UNHRD depot in Dubai. The air transport was generously donated by the Office of U.S Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), who also contributed 1,000 tarpaulins (worth $365,000) to the response.

UNHRD was requested to support the Government of Malaysia by coordinating emergency items from partner organisations, 78% of which were shelter items. This required a multi-depot response and rapid mobilisation of items (total US$1.3 million so far) from the humanitarian community.

On 4 January, the Government of Japan handed over emergency items such as water tanks, generators, water purifiers and other items stored at UNHRD to Malaysia’s National Security Council (NSC). The handover event was attended by H.E. Dr. Makio Miyagawa, Ambassador of Japan, and Datuk Seri Dr. Shahidan bin Kassim, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

UNICEF also donated 10 MT of High Energy Biscuits to Malaysia’s NSC. The biscuits were flown from UNHRD Dubai to UNHRD Kuala Lumpur and sent via road to Kelantan, where around 200,000 people were evacuated during the peak of the flooding. Around 4,000 homes were destroyed in Kelantan alone.

While the situation is slowly improving and more people return to their homes, approximately 3,000 families require urgent temporary shelter until a longer-term housing solution is provided.

Other UNHRD Partners including Irish Aid, World Vision and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have loaned their stocks to the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) Centre for their response activities. UNDP is preparing to handover 135 family tents as well.