The World Of Tzu Chi March 2024 (Vol.149)

2024 • 03 34 By Wee Suan Yen Translated by Lim Wen-Xin lobal Presence I n the dusky hours when the sun retreated beyond the horizon and the tide swelled, the warmth of the sky and a gentle breeze ushered many back home from work. It was a time when the light from home filled hearts with a comforting sense of belonging after a day’s toil. Yet, for one family living in a modest wooden hut along the coast of Sandakan, Sabah, the struggle for survival stretched beyond the day’s end. Ahing, a casual construction worker, went home – not to rest – but to pick up a hook and an empty backpack, and leave home again. After 20 minutes of trekking over ragged wooden bridges and through country trails, he arrived at a 200-acre sprawling landfill, where the discarded items in Sandakan were deposited. Amidst the landfill’s foul smell and swarms of flies, Ahing and his peers scavenged for anything of value. Stateless and unrecognised, they are deprived of healthcare, education, and employment rights, and can only rely on odd jobs or selling recyclables from the landfill to survive. With new waste arriving daily, Ahing would be there after work from 8 p.m. to midnight, typically getting about RM5 worth of recyclables. Occasionally, he would return home with discarded vegetables or fish for his family. Despite the risk of slipping on the damp waste, the sight of beads often sparked joy in him, promising a potentially higher price and the hope of securing treatment for his four-year-old daughter, Nurina. Nurina had lived with an eye tumour since the age of one. She could not receive treatment due to her family’s financial plight. Her mother, Nurfaida, worked tirelessly in a restaurant without days off even during festive seasons, but the overwhelming cost of medical treatment remained out of reach. In their helplessness, the tumour continued to grow. It protruded and swelled, then began to ulcerate, attracting flies. Yet, all the parents could afford was to cover her with a thin mosquito veil. Although the tumour hurt so much that It Is Painful, Mum, but I Can Handle It Lacking the funds for treatment, her eye tumour continued to swell. Was it destined for this young life to wither away in silence?