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Features 21
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2020
Aya Batrawy
DUBAI (AP) - Feby Dela Peña saw her
fellow Filipinos standing in line out-
side her building in Dubai, waiting
for free food. And she was stricken
- what if her family, too, had lost
their income amid the COVID19
outbreak? How would she have fed
her three children?
Dela Peña is unemployed. "We're
poor, to be honest," she said. "But
it's not a reason for me not to help,
you know?"
So the next day, she pulled out
the money that was supposed to
feed her family of ‹ive for a month.
When their 11 housemates got wind
of her plan - like most migrant
workers in Dubai, the family lives
in a shared apartment - those who
could chip in as well.
She was able to buy about
AED500, or USD136, worth of gro-
ceries, including 30 frozen chick-
ens and sacks of rice. And she be-
gan to cook.
That is how Dela Peña launched
the project she calls Ayuda - help,
in Filipino, a language heavily in-
‹luenced by Spanish colonial rule.
Each day, she offers 200 free meals
to the hungry of Dubai, all of them
foreigners, like her own family.
Migrants account for 90 per
cent of the workforce in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE). The economic
shutdown that came with COVID19
has hit their communities hard.
Despite promises by the Philip-
pine government to help overseas
workers with a one-time cash as-
sistance, and despite a nationwide
"10 million meals" initiative by the
government of the UAE to feed the
poor, many are struggling to secure
their next meal.
"Life is so hard and they don't
have anyone to depend on," said
Dela Peña, 34.
Dela Peña's a confident cook
who used to sell home-made
meals to friends as a way to earn
extra money. She said she also
has a license in food safety. But
cooking 200 meals a day is a
massive undertaking, especially
with a six-year-old, a toddler and
a baby at home.
The ‹inances are dicey; Dela
Peña relies on her husband's mod-
est income from a sales job. But
when word of her efforts spread
on social media, people began
reaching out, dropping off car-
tons of eggs and bags of rice. An
in‹luential Emirati blogger gave her
AED10,000 (USD2,700).
She leans on her housemates,
husband and her brother-in-law,
who was let go from his job in a tea
shop amid the pandemic, to help
with buying the groceries, thawing
the meats, chopping the food and
cooking. Ultimately, though, she's
in charge.
"It's a big thing if you can help
like 10 people not to sleep hungry,"
she said, as she scooped up cooked
rice, fried ‹ish and boiled eggs into
containers to distribute.
Her children’s wagon is used
to deliver the meals each day. It is
3pm, and sweltering. A sign on a
cardboard box announces: “FREE!!!
FOOD FOR EVERYONE.”
Some people walk 45 minutes
for one of Dela Peña’s meals. While
The poor feeding the poor
Feby Cachero Baguisa Dela Pena hands out free food to those who need it in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
PHOTO: AP
Unemployed Filipina feeds other jobless migrants in Dubai amid the economic fallout.
Later that year, in November,
“the task force of the Russian Pa-
ci‹ic Fleet entered the port of
Muara” and “the 2nd Brunei-Russia
Navy Staff Talks were organised in
Saint Petersburg”.
The ambassador continued, “In
April and May 2019, a Russian dele-
gation participated in the Western
Paci‹ic Naval Symposium Work-
shop in Brunei”, and the follow-
ing month of June, “the Sultanate
held an inaugural Bilateral Exercise
Planning Conference”.
Goncharenko said, “Russia and
Brunei continue efforts to develop
trade and economic ties, with en-
ergy being one of the most prom-
ising areas. In October 2019, Bru-
neian Minister of Energy Dato Seri
Setia Dr Awang Haji Mat Suny bin
Haji Mohd Hussein attended the
Russian Energy Week in Moscow.
And last year, the Nizhny Novgorod
Institute of Applied Technologies
successfully demonstrated tech-
nologies to clean the oil reservoirs
of sludge in the Sultanate.”
He noted that in the ‹irst months
of this year, the bilateral trade be-
tween the two countries was at
BND30.6 million.
“Our countries have developed
ties in the spheres of culture and
tourism. In April 2019, with the sup-
port from the Bruneian Ministry of
Culture, Youth and Sports, the Rus-
sian Embassy launched the Russian
Literature Section at the Language
and Literature Bureau (DBP) Library,
along with the donation of a collec-
tion of Russian classical literature,”
he said.
In the same month, a group of
Russian travel agents visited Bru-
nei, while at the end of the year,
under the project of the Russian
Federal Agency for Tourism, tour-
ist operators from ASEAN member
states, including Brunei, stayed in
Russia for a month to study Russian
language, history and culture.
“The ties between Muslim com-
munities of Russia and Brunei are
getting stronger,” the ambassador
said. “From January to June last
year, six students from Dagestan
Islamic Sheikh Muhammad Arif
University in Russia studied at Uni-
versiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali (UNIS-
SA). Later in August, of‹icers of the
State Mufti’s Of‹ice attended the
opening ceremony of a mosque in
Shali, Chechen Republic of Russia.
Then, in February this year, Rector
of UNISSA Dr Haji Norarfan bin Haji
Zainal visited the Russian Republics
of Dagestan and Chechnya during
which MoUs between universities
were signed.”
Additionally, he said, in the ‹ield
of education, two Bruneian stu-
dents were admitted to universities
- in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don
- last year under the Russian state
scholarship programme.
To the envoy, the Russia-Brunei
ties “are developing in all areas, and
we are looking forward to giving
a new impetus to cooperation be-
tween our two peoples, as the epide-
miological situation becomes stable.
“It is encouraging that under
the wise leadership of His Majesty,
the spread of COVID19 has been
successfully kept under control
in Brunei. Positive trends are also
beginning to show in my country.
Therefore, we look to the future
with optimism”.
He concluded by extending to
“His Majesty and the people of Bru-
nei Darussalam my best wishes for
happiness, health and prosperity.
Terima kasih”.
most hail fromthePhilippines, there
are also Africans, South Asians and
others. Six Filipino women, who
come every day, said they haven’t
worked or been paid since March
when they lost their sales jobs. One
of the women, Emma Moraga, said
she heard about the meals on social
media. “It’s good, because they can
help a lot of people,” Moraga said.
“One meal a day, it’s big help.”
The crowd lines up. “Social
distancing!” Dela Peña said. Mostly,
though, people are standing apart
and everyone is wearing masks, as
is required by law.
She’s nervous that authorities
in Dubai could stop or ‹ine her for
violating laws on public gatherings
or the distribution of food. But she
intends to feed Dubai’s hungry as
long as she can.
“If I will stop this,” Dela Peña said,
“many people will stop eating.”