Assigned under the MyCorps Africa programme alongside 43 other Malaysian volunteers, her mission took her through Kenya – but the stories and struggles she witnessed across the region would later mirror the humanitarian catastrophe now unfolding in Sudan.
For three months, the volunteers lived as the communities did, often relying on water from open reservoirs shared with livestock.
Nights would pass without stable electricity. Days began early, with children walking barefoot over stone and dusty roads to reach makeshift classrooms under trees or inside tents on the verge of collapsing.
“It changed the way we saw the world. Many communities had almost nothing, and yet they still shared, still helped one another, still smiled,” she told Bernama recently.
In one school she visited, nearly two dozen children crowded around a single worn-out Quran. Textbooks were torn, missing pages or completely absent. Many of the younger students wrote on reused pieces of wood or scraps of paper because proper exercise books did not exist.
Teachers taught voluntarily, sometimes without pay, for years. Families who had slightly more stable households would take in other families as domestic refugees.
The African spirit of takaful – mutual care and shared responsibility – was not merely spoken about: it was lived.
Though her placement was in Kenya, the conditions she observed reflected what many Sudanese communities were already facing at the time – and what millions more are enduring today at unprecedented levels.
Today, Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 11 million people displaced and millions of children at risk of hunger and disease.
Hospitals have collapsed, schools have been destroyed, and entire communities are living in makeshift shelters, open fields, or abandoned buildings, with many families surviving on just one meal every two or three days.
For Tengku Ain, now communications director at Malaysian Humanitarian Aid & Relief (Mahar), the silence surrounding Sudan is one of the hardest truths to accept.
“Sudan is a crisis without cameras. And without cameras, there is no global outrage, no headlines, no pressure, no solidarity,” she stressed.
International journalists can barely enter the country. In conflict zones such as Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan, kidnappings and violence are routine, making media access nearly impossible. Without visuals and on-the-ground reporting, global attention fades.
To many outside Africa, the conflict is difficult to understand, and humanitarian fatigue has only deepened that disconnect. “Because the world cannot see Sudan, the world does not feel Sudan,” Tengku Ain added.
Mahar is now working with local and international partners to establish safe routes for emergency aid into Sudan. The organisation has urged greater international attention and sustained support, noting that Sudan’s suffering continues largely out of the global spotlight.
The security situation remains volatile, but the organisation remains committed. Sudan’s most urgent needs today include food, clean water, medical supplies, temporary shelters, and education support for children who have lost years of schooling, Tengku Ain outlined.
But just as crucial is global advocacy, the push to ensure Sudan is not forgotten. “A crisis becomes invisible when no one speaks about it. For Malaysia, even a small voice can help,” she said.
Five years may have passed since Tengku Ain walked the dusty roads of East Africa, but the memories are as vivid as ever: the barefoot children, the teachers who never gave up, the communities who shared what little they had.
It is these memories, and the faces behind them, that drive her to speak up for Sudan today.