KUALA KANGSAR, Nov 25 — Close cooperation between the residents of Kampung Talang Hulu in managing the COVID-19 situation has enabled the village to win the state-level COVID-19 Green Zone Community competition under the traditional village category recently.
As part of the prize winnings the village is entitled to a RM50,000 developmental project in the area.
Prime Minister Datuk Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob presented the award to Kuala Kangsar district officer Tuan Zulhisham Ahmad Shukori during the #KeluargaMalaysiaSiagaBencana programme held in Putrajaya on Nov 8.
Village Community Management Committee (JPKK) member Sabri And Krim, said several programmes were implemented in managing the COVID-19 situation after the village was nominated to participate in the contest organised by the Rural Development Ministry (KPLB).
“Among the measures taken were carrying out sanitation in the mosque and surau as well as putting up posters to warn and provide information about COVID-19 in efforts to get residents to take the vaccine to curb the spread of infection.
During the outbreak, those infected were provided food supply to prevent them from leaving their homes for fear of infecting others,” he told Bernama when met in the village recently
Kampung Talang Hulu with a population of 2,000 is located about five kilometres from Kuala Kangsar and three other villages under the same administrative council are Kampung Talang Masjid, Talang Changkat and Talang Tengah.
In 2016 the village won third place for the Desa Perdana and Anugerah Desa 1Malaysia award.
The villagers are either self-employed as farmers or durian growers while some are private and public sector employees while the facilities available here include a mosque, surau, schools, a community hall, rural clinic, Rukun Tetangga centre, public religious schools, futsal courts, stalls and vehicle workshops.
Meanwhile, Kampung Talang Hulu Rukun Tetangga (RT) chairman Mohd Yasin Mohd Wahi, said the villagers had built closer rapport with one another as they worked together in facing the challenges of the pandemic and went through the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
“We helped residents who were affected by the pandemic by supplying them food and we also ran several programmes with our own funds as well as assistance from the mosque.
“The young people here were deployed to carry out sanitisation at the public places to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infection,” he said adding that there is also a Unity Squad to assist in times of disasters and health related programmes organised with the help of several government agencies.
According to Mohd Yasin, the RM50,000 winnings would be utilised to build a bus stop and a community centre at the Dewan Orang Ramai to facilitate home-based teaching and learning (PdPR).
“When schools were closed, most of the children had to use their parents smart phones for PdPR because there was no WIFI connection and learning was disrupted,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kuala Kangsar Municipal Council (MPKK) president Zulqarnain Mohamad said the village would be included in the MPKK administrative area next year to enable development and sanitation programmes including garbage collection to be implemented there.
Sources: BERNAMA