Some of us freeze when we encounter a situation like never before. Lekha Nandey, however, decided to take matters into her own hands and do something about it.
Lekha was staying over at a relative’s place when she woke up only to notice something odd about her surroundings. When she looked out the window and saw a floating fridge and a sofa, she realised what had happened. Their neighbour’s single-storey house was completely submerged in water.
The experience she went through in the 2007 Johor Flood was the start of Lekha’s involvement with the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. She saw how everyone struggled for resources in those hard days and couldn’t just sit around and watch. Since that incident, Lekha has been one of the main organisers and coordinators for the society, looking for food and other items for the needy and securing donations from agencies. For the past ten years, she has been involved in the distribution of food to over 800 families, giving breakfast to the Orang Asli school-going children, organising annual bubur lambuk during Ramadan, and many more.
When disaster strikes, Lekha will take charge of the ‘kitchen’, supervising and understanding the situation at hand. In one situation, while working on the ground, another wave of the flood had swept the disaster area, destroying all the food that was delivered. Fortunately, Lekha managed to turn things around with whatever little they had. Being on the ground gives her more insight into what goes on and with the direct experience, she knows exactly how to coordinate feeding plans in the future.
Helping others is a trait that has been instilled in Lekha from a young age. Even though she grew up with helpers, her grandmother instilled a habit of cooking and delivering food to the beggars in their neighbourhood. Such experiences from a young age taught her not to be awkward or hesitant when helping people – a learned skill she applies throughout her life. Times have changed, Lekha said, as more people are wary and question the genuineness of beggars, or refuse to help strangers.
Lekha’s idea of retirement may see her leaving her job, but she will never stop helping another person. Helping makes her feel good and she feels blessed that although she does not have a lot, she can still play a part in helping friends and acquaintances who want to help but do not know the channels to go to. Her house, she says, contains a lot of dried food – donations from people that she redistributes to the right channels.
“We don’t know 98% of the people we help. We cannot pick and choose whom we want to help,” said Lekha.
