While many are celebrating Christmas this week, citizens residing in the north-eastern states of Malaysia – in particular, Kelantan – are fighting what seems to be the worst flood in the country since 2004.
According to the Malay Mail Online, over 90,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes across five states, with 32,000 of them hailing from Kelantan alone. The political party governing Kelantan has requested an emergency parliamentary sitting to find a way to deal with the situation.
In the midst of this tragedy, a group of local entrepreneurs has banded together to create a portal providing the latest information on the floods. Called mybanjir – which stands for “malaysia flood” – the website features the most up-to-date news relating to the flood, and a Twitter feed of the #mybanjir hashtag.
The site initially provided the option to make donations as well, but the team has pulled it down due to legal issues.
Syahrul Azrai Mat Hasan, the program director at Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), says that the team is currently working hard to update the website to the next version, which will add in information from more sources. A mobile app is also in the works.
According to him, the team has been working all day and night since yesterday afternoon – December 25 – forgoing their sleep in the process.
“We’re all doing whatever we can at the moment in our personal capacities,” he adds. “This is as much as we can do, through social media and our technical know-how. We hope that, through this, we are able to restore communications with loved ones, and send much-needed supplies to the victims,” says Mat Hasan.
See: This startup arranges for private jets to airlift sick Indonesians to Singapore and Malaysia
This post Entrepreneurs start #mybanjir to support Kelantan in Malaysia’s worst flood since 2004 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Entrepreneurs start #mybanjir to support Kelantan in Malaysia’s worst flood since 2004
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