KOTA BARU, Feb 18 — For two hours last Saturday afternoon, a school in Kuala Krai — one of the areas in the state worst hit by the recent floods — was transformed into a market where visitors could pick and choose things they need to rebuild their lives. For free.

As suggested by the name FreeMarket, villagers were invited to take the items home at no cost. Those who came to the market were reminded of two rules only: Take what you need and ask for it politely.

“Budi pekerti (Good manners) is our currency of trade, we don't use money to trade, we use nilai murni (good values) to sell things today. When someone wants (something), he asks for it nicely, if he takes more than he needs, that's wasting, we don't give; if he takes without asking, that's stealing, we don't give,” FreeMarket coordinator Syed Azmi Alhabshi said as he briefed a 59-strong group of self-funded volunteers who either flew in or drove down to Kelantan last weekend.

Families who swarmed the FreeMarket in Kuala Krai's SK Manek Urai Baru were given the treat of picking from brand new items ranging from vegetables and raw meat, stationery, toiletries, cutlery, diapers, bedsheets and pillows, and even toys — all neatly laid out and arranged in booths according to categories.

Like a hypermarket, every possible need had been thought of by the volunteers; from the simple need to have a full stomach, to the need to feel clean and have some small comfort.

Some villagers in the area continue to live in tents with scant shade as they slowly build their houses brick by brick amid neighbours living in houses awash in a thin layer of brown, with passing vehicles stirring up dust.

Villager Khadijah Abdullah, 30, said that the food items she picked up from FreeMarket would allow her to feed her six children for a few days, telling Malay Mail Online simply as her face lit up: “Gembira. Alhamdulillah (Happy. Thanks be to God)”.

Her friend Siti Rahani Mohamad, 54, whose house in Kampung Manjor was completely destroyed, had to move in to her child's house at Sungai Sam.

She had came slightly later and was only able to take fewer items, adding however: “Enough lah. Let others take.”

Volunteers speaking to the happy shoppers at the FreeMarket in Kuala Krai, Kelantan.

1. Dignity for new lives

Syed Azmi, one of the key persons in the FreeMarket team which has organised 26 similar events in just a years' time, explained why they decided to introduce FreeMarket in Kelantan’s Manek Urai instead of the typical method of delivering and distributing aid to flood victims door-by-door.

“At one particular kampung in Dabung, a mother was actually telling her kid: 'No need to take, if you don't need, don't take, you give someone else, there's other people who need it.' That kindness on that day prompted me to actually bring my team to come here and do this, because we would not be exploited.

“People can take advantage because we give free things, but that did not happen today at the FreeMarket. They actually followed the rules and asked nicely,” he told Malay Mail Online, describing a scene during the FreeMarket team's second flood relief visit to Kelantan.

“I think that's the winning part of it, that was the reason, because we believe they are kind. Come on, you actually went into a big turmoil due to the flood and yet you still believe on having good behaviour, being kind... don't you think you deserve a reward for that?” he added.

Syed Azmi said that the items are not prepackaged in identical individual packs to be handed out so that those who receive it do not take the aid “for granted”, also pointing out that families of different sizes would have different needs and saying that fairness would instead mean equal opportunity for the public to take what they need.

“As you can see, when we talk about choosing, we actually think about things [that] feel a bit more humane. What happened before was people just dumped clothing into one area and you just choose, it looked like a dumpster. But what we did was we put the clothes on racks that look like a shopping mall... isn't that more dignified?” he said, having also explained that the FreeMarket team brought in sponsored cosmetics to help reinstill “self-confidence” in women who “lost everything” in the floods.

Students tucking into their meal at SK Seberang Pasir Mas, one of the schools hit by the floods last year.

Beyond offering dignity, the FreeMarket team also wanted to provide a temporary cushion for the Kelantan people that would ultimately help them pick up their lives again.

“What we do now is actually boost up the spirit of the Kelantan people, to start standing on their own. They are ready to stand up on their own, we do not want to over-pamper people where they wait or just take advantage. We do not want to spoil them. What we do is we give them opportunities to help themselves, cushion them for a while,” he said, saying that it would be unfair to focus only on a particular group when there are multiple groups needing aid such as orphans and the homeless.

The FreeMarket team dropped off sponsored rubber-tapping tools for the Kampung Karangan community in Kuala Krai, also passing sponsored cooking equipment and raw materials to six local villagers to set up their own stalls and regain their livelihood - including the ubiquitous East Coast snack of keropok lekor (fish crackers) and luk chin or fish balls.

The stalls were manned by locals who gave away the food and drinks for free, with Syed Azmi saying: “The feeling is good, then they become self-confident, so the next day with the things they actually got and when they actually want to sell for money, they actually have the self-confidence, because we trained them with the FreeMarket concept.”

A student at SK Seberang Pasir Mas receives a mandarin orange from volunteers, while his friend excitedly peeps at the rare treat of chicken rice.

2. Giving and sharing to work instant ‘miracles’

A common theme of giving and sharing ran through the three-day FreeMarket trip for flood victims, from a birthday party for orphans that saw their orphanage flooded for five days to the waist, to schoolbags and a rare luxurious treat of chicken rice during recess for over 300 students of SK Seberang Pasir Mas, to cookies for the Siamese and Chinese community ahead of this week's Chinese New Year festivities.

During the FreeMarket trip —under the banner of “Rakyat4Rakyat” (People for the People) — everyone chipped in, with quick thinking used to solve sudden hiccups that cropped up. No one was too young to help, with the FreeMarket team's official photographer Mohd Zahrylzam Md Zamri bringing along his eight-year-old son to join in the volunteer efforts.

Volunteers forming a human chain and loading up a truck with sponsored items late at night for the FreeMarket.

Sue Win, a volunteer who flew in from Kuala Lumpur with her two daughters aged 10 and 13, described her first experience of working on the ground with the FreeMarket team as seeing “miracles” happening every day.

“I think it's amazing to see that people, if they have genuine hearts to do things, they can actually do it. These past few days, what we have been seeing is just simple people doing things but you are just seeing miracles. Every day you are seeing miracles, not just one, so many miracles,” the medical equipment distributor who has financially supported the team's past projects told Malay Mail Online, also saying that she wanted her children to see the flood-devastated areas for themselves.

Volunteers speaking to the shoppers at the FreeMarket in Kuala Krai, Kelantan.

Rosnah Hassan, the operation director of the Food Aid Foundation that contributed a truckload's worth of food items for the FreeMarket, said self-dubbed “non-government individuals (NGIs)” showed up quickly in the aftermath of the floods in Kelantan.

“We always believe in working closely with the people for the people. It's awesome to find great NGIs who can work like lightning. There's no red tape, there's no bureaucracy, we shout out for funds and people keep coming,” said Rosnah, whose food bank organisation whipped up 120,000 meals during a one-week period for flood victims in Guchil, Kelantan last month.

According to FreeMarket co-ordinator Norhayati Ismail, the group distributed around 10 tonnes of items worth over RM30,000 that were sponsored by close to 20 corporate sponsors and generous Malaysians.

Volunteer Mohammad Shahmi Mohd Anwar, 21, who came with 14 other German-Malaysian Institute (GMI) students to help out, told Malay Mail Online that he learnt new concepts about giving, where good manners is the currency to trade items and where no money was required, adding that they were now inspired to consider bringing the FreeMarket idea to their campus and local community in Bangi.