Creative ideas during the Pandemic crisis
By Tek & Goldie Chong
We asked friends to share how they made use of this crisis time as opportunities to help others.
In Chinese 危机 (wēi jī) is a compound word of ‘crisis’ & ‘opportunity’:
Time to Connect
This lockdown has given me the excuse to ring my old friends.
“I am stuck in my home, so I suddenly thought of you. How are you ? What have you been up to lately?” Friends are genuinely glad to have a chat. And pray for each other.
Earn & Share
Esther from Kuala Lumpur, in a moment of inspiration, conceptualised the idea of a Cook & Bless campaign.
RAKYAT JAGA RAKYAT (people caring for people)
She firmly believes and carries out the “Principle of the One and the one” – based on the Starfish story ( even if you cannot throw a thousand starfish back into the ocean, you can save one with your limited effort). Just help one because it matters to that ONE person.
Her simple model:
- The cook: Sponsor a needy person to cook X number of food packs.
- The sponsor: You be the ‘virtual’ customer & buy ALL the packs from her.
- The distributor/cook: the cook will distribute the food packs FOC to her surrounding poor areas.
Benefits Everyone
1. THE COOK
- Gives her dignity and a sense of purpose.
- A sense of being a part of the community & participating in a humanitarian effort.
- She is guaranteed sale of ALL her food packs.
- She controls her cost & earns the profit.
- She engages with the poor in the vicinity & establishes goodwill.
2. THE SPONSOR
- Love in Action.
- Be an integral part of saving our nation in these tumultuous times.
- Engagement & empathy with the less privileged.
3. THE RECIPIENTS
- They experience compassion & kindness.
- Given a moment of joy & love.
- They do not feel abandoned & forgotten.
- They have at least one hearty meal.
It’s doable
- Low cost to the Sponsor (e.g. RM3 per food pack with one whole egg X 100 packs=RM300).
- Very replicable.
- Potential for wide reach & penetration into many geographical areas.
- A model based on TRUST in the Cook & the Distributor – ensure no short changing.
- Evidence-based – photographic evidence of the food packs, the quantity prepared & the distribution activity itself.
This campaign is not religiously skewed. It is colour blind and serves all races. Admittedly it is a short-term stop hunger method, but we must start somewhere. Please duplicate in your own way.
By end October, Esther’s (which she calls God’s) project has distributed 10,000 food packs!
You can find Esther’s project on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072377924870
