The world of Tzu Chi July 2020 (Vol.124)

36 pecial Feature 2020 • 07 T he Kampung Bangkuruan landfill, situated in a remote location a 40-minute drive away from the township of Lahad Datu, houses refuse from Lahad Datu and its surrounding areas. The villagers make a living by collecting scrap metal and discarded plastic bottles and live in simple tents without sturdy walls or doors to shield them from the elements, much less the polluted air and foul odour from outside, leaving them vulnerable to mosquitoes and flies. On June 6, 2020, a group of volunteers arrived to document the villagers’ particulars in a register and cleared a segment of the landfill to accommodate a distribution site and a designated zone for body temperature checks and hand sanitizing with the villagers’ help. The following day, the volunteers distributed food supplies to 29 households in the village. The beneficiaries were photographed as proof of receipt in lieu of obtaining signatures. The provisions included three 10 kg sacks of rice, a 5 kg bottle of cooking oil, two 1 kg packs of sugar, two 300 ml bottles of soy sauce, a 2 kg pack of chocolate beverage powder and two 550 g packs of instant oats. Although the villagers lived in