KUALA LUMPUR: A group of volunteers will be selling dokong fruit brought in from Manik Urai, Kelantan, to raise funds to build new cabins for victims who lost their homes in the December 2014 floods.

Skuad Bantuan Bencana 4x4 coordinator Thomas Foo said the group visited Manik Urai last weekend to check out the area, some 20 months after the disaster.

“There are hundreds of people still in limbo and several families without proper houses. They are living in small cabins with no toilets. They do not have any electricity and are living in darkness every night,” he said, adding that there was one family with 11 members crammed into one room.

Foo said these families were considered a low priority as they do not have proper paperwork or other proof that they owned property damaged by the floods.

“If we don’t do anything, they would have to wait another three to five years for a decent home,” he said.

To assist them, Foo and several volunteers came up with the idea to “convert dokong to cash.”

Each 7kg carton of the langsat-like fruit will be sold at RM50.

“We are going to harvest around five tonnes from a farm here and that will make for 500 cartons,” he said, adding that they hope to raise RM25,000 and use it to rebuild the houses and build five new cabins.

The dokong will be sold outside the Explorer Outfitter store at the Publika shopping gallery from Monday.