Fatimah: State govt anticipates increase in financial aid applications
KUCHING: The Sarawak government is anticipating an increase in applications for financial assistance due to Covid-19 outbreak and Movement Control Order (MCO), says Minister of Welfare, Community Well being, Women, Family and Children Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah. She said the state government would be reviewing the financial assistance for the needy people, and was confident the government could accommodate the many applications in the near term. “It is the state government’s intention to provide the required assistance to the people during these challenging times, and we hope the financial assistance can become a reality,” she said when presenting financial assistance at Wisma Kebajikan, Jalan Siol Kanan, here yesterday. Fatimah also shared statistics regarding financial assistance that has been distributed to those in need in the state, especially the bo om 40 per cent group (B40) or households with monthly income of less than RM4,000. Since the Disaster Assistance Scheme was formed in January 2017, she said the Welfare Department had provided assistance for daily basic needs, schooling, small businesses recovery and water supply.
“The assistance is structured based on the principle of social fairness for long-term benefit of the recipients,” said Fatimah.
Fatimah said over RM1.7 million in disaster assistance had been distributed to 264 cases covering fire, landslides, thunderstorm, flood and dry season across the state in April this year.
As for food assistance for Covid-19 frontline personnel, she said RM999,635 was spent on the first phase of MCO, second phase (RM2.5 million), third phase (RM2.582 million), and fourth phase (RM2.54 million). It is expected that RM4.44 million would be spent during the Conditional MCO, making the grand total of slightly over RM13 million.
“A total of 1,076,698 food packs were also distributed to 11,093 frontline personnel from the police, Welfare Department, General Operation Force, Civil Defence Force, Immigration, Customs, local authorities and media, among others.”
She said each personnel was given RM30 worth of food for lunch, dinner and supper or breakfast each day.
Fatimah also said each division distributed 1,000 food baskets during the first phase of MCO in Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Sibu, Mukah, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang. Serian only received 605 food baskets for distribution.
“The food basket assistance is the initiative of the federal government. We have appealed for an increase in quota of food baskets for Serian Division to 1,000.”
Under the second phase of
MCO, she said most divisions had distributed 500 food baskets to the needy people, except for Samarahan, Bintulu and Miri which only had 346, 138 and 354 food baskets respectively.
Fatimah added that over RM21,000 in financial assistance was given to four families who lost their home to a fire at Kampung Semerah Padi, Jalan Bangau 2 in April. They are putting up at Kampung Semerah Padi recreational and relocation centre.
She also announced the recipients of aids from the
National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) duringthe function.
For help and more information, members of the public can contact Welfare Department at 082-311554 or divisional welfare offices in Kuching (082-507111), Samarahan (082-671191), Serian (082-872472), Sibu (084-330675), Betong (083-471952), Sarikei (084651005), Kapit (084-796152), Sri Aman (083-321730), Mukah (084873801), Bintulu (086-332341), Miri (085-419073), and Limbang (085211930). Operations hours are from 8am to 5pm.