Food Distribution – Islamic Aid Malaysia

Pertubuhan Bantuan Islam Malaysia/Islamic Aid Association Malaysia (IAM) or formerly known as IRM Association is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) involved in humanitarian activities. IAM focuses on people from disadvantaged backgrounds and also involved in specific relief activities during festive seasons in Malaysia for instance, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year and Deepavali, as well as emergency relief for people affected by natural disasters or pandemic.

The beneficiaries are within the B40 income bracket, focusing on single mothers with many children, senior citizens, families with disabilities and families with many children. Assistance provided comes in the form of food packages containing daily necessities such as rice, sugar, salt and many others and are distributed to communities living at Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) flats around Kuala Lumpur.

IAM collaboration with ILTIZAM started in 2018 and since then, ILTIZAM has been supporting IAM’s Jejak Prihatin Imarah Ramadan every year. The collaboration also extended when the pandemic hit and the Movement Control Order was implemented as a lot of them were affected due to not being able to work.

“We always look for the right partner to champion our initiatives. The knowledge, expertise and capabilities of the NGOs and corporations are different but most of the time complementary. With ILTIZAM, we have successfully reached our common goal to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds alleviate their burden by providing short-term assistance and support to these communities to ease their burden during difficult times and to bring some cheer to the communities,” commented its president, Zawahir Che Abdullah.

As a team, IAM and ILTIZAM work together from identifying the beneficiaries to volunteering their time to distribute the food packages to the recipients. Zawahir concluded, “If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together as in this case, it has certainly helped in serving more underserved communities.”

ILTIZAM’s first involvement in food distribution for the underprivileged urban community was with IAM, and it was only done in Ramadhan. From that exposure, ILTIZAM has expanded this initiative and in 2020 collaborated with 70 NGOs and did food distribution to 11,000 families.