Jembara Al-Falah (Jembara) charity team chairman Abdul Rahim Othman, 61, said the group, which comprised government and private retirees aged between 55 and 70, tried their best to help and hoped that their small contribution would alleviate the burden of flood victims.

“We may not be as strong as young people but our will to help remains strong … that is why we look for homes that need help in terms of cleaning, like our team member’s relatives, single mothers and those who don’t have many family members.

“We ask around for these houses. Some people even reach out to us via Facebook when they see photos of us in action,” he told Bernama when met here today.

Rahim jokingly said that cleaning the flood victims’ houses was one of their ways of exercising as all 50 members of the Jembara Club are used to taking part in outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and camping.

He said Jembara also preferred to work independently, without donations from the public, to avoid any issues. Instead, they use the club’s money, which also includes the profits from a food stall they run in Sungai Isap.

So far, Rahim said only one person managed to persuade the club to accept donations, which has been used to buy water jets to facilitate their clean-up work, especially in houses covered in thick mud.

“We usually start work at 9am because we need to finish everything by noon. We have a muezzin on our team, so we need to settle everything before zohor prayers,” he said.

He said the club’s initiative to assist flood victims started early this year when they saw photos of severe floods in the Maran and Pekan districts. This prompted them to spend their own money to buy cleaning equipment.

“Unexpectedly, the floods occurred twice this year.

“Since we already have the equipment, we thought we should continue our efforts to help people in distress. We may be tired but it makes us happy and satisfied when the house owners thank us and appreciate what we do,” he said.