Minutes of 27:00 44:00

Interviewer

: When was the first time that the Syrian refugees came to

Malaysia and how did it

all started?
Mdm Azra

: I was in Syria in 2010. I was on the way to Gaza. I was part of

the land convoy from

London to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aids. In 2011 onwards,
things are getting
started really. difficult for Syrians. In February, Mubarak resign.
After Egypt, then
Syria erupted. They tried to bring their government down but
unfortunately Assad
still has the support of Russia in Iran. It is much more difficult
to bring Assad down
than the Housni Mubarak. In 2011, the problems in Syria
started. Late 2012, early
2013, the Syrians started coming to Malaysia. Among the
Syrian refugees that we
met was two couples with young children. The guy as husband
was the recipient of
food. aid. Imagine there are over 600 families, a very small
number. And of 600, you
have Africans. Afgans, Pakistani and then Syrians.
Interviewer

: Have you ever experienced anything about the Syrian

refugees? Can you share your

stories with us?

Mdm Azra

: There was this guy that a bom had fallen not too far from his

house. The immediate

reaction after bom falls is people go out and help. As they
were helping, second
bom fell. And the boy got injurt as he lost his eyes. And, he
became the witness for
the second bomming. The police was looking for him and took
his wife and two
children. So he came to Malaysia thinking that he would apply
for visa. He came
here and got stucked. But because he has two conditions
which are
medical and the second one is under threat, ge got his
refugees status very fast. He
was among the luckier Syrian refugee. The second family that
we met was a mother
with four kids. Father left Malaysia earlier this year to North
Africa and probably
they are going to cross the Europe. So, the elder children will
start working at
restaurant, shops and as a cleaner to support the families.
Most of the Syrian are
here because they basically wait to be listen. Some of the
Syrian refugees will be
fast track because they have special circumstances.

Interviewer : Is it possible to communicate with the Rohingyas in Malaysia?

Mdm Azra

: Yes, it is possible for Malaysian to communicate with the

Rohingyas because they

are all speak Malay. Some of the Rohingyas have been here
for so long they have
become very cunning.
Interviewer

: What are the challenges in managing the financial support

towards the Refugees?

Mdm Azra

It is not easy. Imagine you have RM500, 000 of peoples

money and you want to

distribute food, you cant just go to anybody and give to
them. Like we have
various community leaders coming and say Oh, I have 200
families under me
but we have to be very careful because we dont know
exactly where the food
going to. People under certain circumstances will take
advantage and doesnt
matter whether the people are refugees or not. If people are
going to take
advantage, then they will.
Interviewer

: How does the NGOS in Malaysia managed to distribute basic

necessities towards
Refugees? And, in what ways?

Mdm Azra

: We never give money towards the refugees. If we are going to

distribute food during

Ramadhan, we will order food. Every year, we will do a huge
food distribution day.
Like in last year, it was at Bandar Baru Ampang Jaya
Hypermarket. We took the
entire levels and that is where the refugees came and they
have a voucher,
registration and then the Sahabat Programme community
members will give food.
We also have volunteer who will drive the refugees back and
we have seven buses
sponsored to send the refugees.
Interviewer

: Is there any community that is responsible in managing the

Rohingyas in Malaysia?
Mdm Azra : Yes, we usually will sent the Rohingyas to a community in Klang.
Interviewer

: How many families are allocated for each community leaders

to handle the
Rohingyas?
Mdm Azra

: The Rohingyas community in Klang is very specified. Only for

425 families. It is
not just like 300 families. They even have a list but we cant
usually check so much
because at the end of day we are still going to have some
degree of trust. And

whatever they do after that is between them and Allah.

Interviewer : In Sahabat Programme, how many countries that involved with
the refugees? Where
does most of the refugees come from?
Mdm Azra

: Oh I forgot but there is a small amount of Sri Langka refugees,

Myammar, Rohingya
and Chin (Myammar Christian) Chin about 30/1000 and the
Rohingyas about
30/1000. We have Syrian of course, Myammar, Pakistan, Iran,
Iraq, Palestine,
Sudan, Somalia, Yaman and few of African countries. These are
the major one.
Interviewer : How does the Sahabat Programme help in medical care for the
refugees?
Mdm Azra

: By setting up a charity clinic. First for refugees. Start with raise

funds and that is

more manageable and through the clinic, we got network. We
got a lot of doctors
among our social circle. Among of our friends, are doctors. One
of our community
members is Dr Vina, she is Carefugees. She works twice a week
at MSRI clinic and
she also conduct research on refugees mental health. We have
funded her research
for rm10, 000. Have you heard of Emirant? Islamic medical,
young Malaysian

muslims doctors. They also do excellent. Nobody is going to do

something for free for too long.in this case, is raising money and
then have to fund
the place, and then to pay the doctors.
Interviewer

: Is there any laws in United Nation that states regarding the

refugees? Whether
There is a certain amount of families that can come in to
Malaysia.
Mdm Azra

: They cant stop, right? Because we cant stop refugees from

coming in. they just

come in and then they go for register. But whats happening
now is that they are
overloaded. Overloaded. As a result, they are very selective
for who will get the
refugees statues.
Interviewer

: What are the challenges that Sahabat Programme has to go

through in order to
welcome the refugees?
Mdm Azra

: Unfortunate reality is that they are people taking advantage.

People who come

from countries that their life is difficult, and then they come to
Malaysia, there
will be a stupid agent that says Dont worry, pay me
rm5000. And I will

arrange for everything. And then, the refugees come to

Malaysia and whoops I
got nothing! So many have been caught in that situation. So,
sometimes we get
request from certain community, I am not going to name the
community but
certain community where we dont know whether these
people are genuine
refugees or not. So what do we do in the end of the day, there
are still people who
need food so, you help on that bases.. So we dont determine
in that small cases.
We are not going to judge oh, youre not refugees. We dont
do that.
Interviewer

: What are the campaign that have been held by the Sahabat

Programme? And what

are the main purpose of this campaign?
Mdm Azra

: I would say that dont just make this into research purpose. We

had our launched

in April this year at Bangsar Shopping center. And our
campaign this year was
launched by Harith Iskandar. And, he reminded everybody
that we must all help
the people who are marginalize in our society. And makes no
mistake for the

refugees and I thought that he is going to say the refugees

are marginalize
society. But he did not state that. He said that refugees are
part of society.
Interviewer

: How can the university students get involve in helping the

refugees?
Mdm Azra

: Young people like you have energy, creativity. You still look at

that world like

optimistic. No need to contribute money but please have
time. Find a course that
feel you want to commit yourself to. If refugees course for
example, because there
are few Ngos like us Carefugees. Carefugees works under
Muslim professional
forum, my other ngo you can join us but we are more into
projector project.
Interviewer

What are the upcoming event that Sahabat Programme

decided to conduct in order

to enable the society to get involved in helping the refugees?
Mdm Azra

: Tomorrow there are food delivery at Islamic school. If you are

going to participate,
you can go there. You can meet some Afgans. Tomorrow 10 to
11 or something
like that at Ampang. It is at Weekend Islamic School set up by
a group of woman,

Malaysian and foreigners who saw that the refugees kids were
not getting Islamic
education.
Interviewer

: Some of the refugees kids are said to have a lack of Islamic

Education. Why? And

how to overcome this problem?
Mdm Azra

: Because the refugees kids are not Rohingyas, they are sent to

mostly UNHR Run

School. UNCHR Run School they did not teach any religion at
all. No religious
Education. Sometimes, they may be at Christianity, a little bit
not too much. But,
zero Islamic education. these women set up a weekend
school, on their own
initiative and its been running for three years. So its a really
worth visiting
weekend school and visit there on Saturday or Sunday