She said the move was to help the traumatised flood victims recover from the emotional stress and address the problems that they are facing.

“We have 423 volunteer counsellors in Selangor, followed by Kuala Lumpur (126), Perak (91), Negeri Sembilan (70), Kelantan (68), Pahang (57), and Melaka (37) to provide counselling services to victims housed at temporary flood relief centres,” she told reporters after distributing aid to residents in Rantau Panjang here today.

Siti Zailah said the ministry had a total of 1,500 registered volunteer counsellors nationwide, adding that counsellors from states that are not affected by the floods are welcomed to help.

“Flood victims, especially in Selangor and Pahang, are suffering from trauma after losing their property. Some have lost family members. So, the counsellors’ role is to help them ease their burden,” she added.

RM5,000 for kin of dead flood victims

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) said the government would provide RM5,000 in death management assistance to the next of kin of victims who died due to the floods through the Bantuan Wang Ihsan (BWI) benevolent fund.

Nadma director-general Aminuddin Hassim said this was to ease the burden of those affected by the disaster.

He also said that among the requirements to be eligible for the BWI aid were Malaysian citizenship, and the victims must have been affected by the flood disaster, besides having registered themselves under the name of the head of household.

Elaborating further, Aminuddin said registration must be done with the welfare department for victims evacuated to temporary relief centres.

“Those who are not evacuated to a relief centre need to register either with the community head or village head in their places,” he said during the Ops Banjir press conference in Taman Sri Muda in Shah Alam, Selangor, today.