KUALA LUMPUR: She travels the world writing about the best places to eat, contributing her articles to some of the most prestigious newspapers and magazines of the Western world.
But when a car hit and severely damaged a hawker stall in Penang, freelance writer Robyn Eckhardt went above and beyond the call of duty.
The food hawker only known as 'Ms Ooi', was struck by calamity after her 'wooden charcoal char koay kak' cart was smashed to smithereens at 7am this morning, putting her temporarily out of work.
Penang-based Eckhardt, who said she witnessed the incident first hand, wasted no time and immediately started a Facebook fundraising drive.
Along with a picture of the destroyed cart, she posted a plea on her Facebook account, asking the public to help the favourite neighbourhood hawker.
“Ms. Ooi, who works every single day of the year, has a cart to repair. She lost a day's supplies. And she will be idle for as long as it takes to fix her cart.
“She is lucky she wasn't killed, but this is a financial calamity for her.
“Penang-ites, Malaysians, and all lovers of Penang: Will you help one of its best, hardest-working hawkers recover from this accident?” wrote Eckhardt.
She urged Penangites to contribute any amount they can to help, so that she would be able to give at least RM100 to help Ooi get her stall back up and running.
However, what followed was a reaction so overwhelming, that she had to post an update to urge the donors to hold back on the contribution, at least until further notice.
According to Eckhardt, around RM 2000 was collected, with contributors from Penang and elsewhere including abroad, that morning alone.
Ekhardt said that the money will be passed to Ooi in the afternoon and upon figuring out the cost of the actual damage from her, interested donors may be able to give more.
“We will then shout out here if we need to collect more money for her.
“What happened to Ms. Ooi sucks, but your response has been amazing. Thank you!” she quipped.
Ekhardt, who is a Michigan native, according to her Facebook, is a freelance writer for The New York Times, among other publications and currently lives in Penang.