SANDAKAN – The problem involving children crammed on a wooden boat without life jackets just to make it to school has been resolved within eight days after a villager posted about it online in an appeal for help.
Amal Team, a non-government organisation (NGO) from Peninsular Malaysia, had donated two fibre boats with 30hp engines to residents of Kg Pituru and Kg Timbang Taun (Mengakapon Laut), which were received by the villages’ representative, Ajirin Abdirin.
Khairul Abidin, 40, the man who posted the issue online on January 13 in the hopes that it would go viral, had achieved this after several NGOs contacted him to offer help.
The photos he posted showed 27 primary school students crammed into a boat without having life jackets on heading to SK Mengkapon in Pitas, about 30 to 40 minutes’ boat ride away.
However, the school had distributed life jackets to the students the next day, but it did not resolve the problem of overcapacity.
“Many villagers came to me and thanked me after we received the boats yesterday.
“However, I feel humbled because it was the good Samaritans who had helped. What I did was just make the problem public so that people would understand our living conditions in this remote village.
I do not want anything in return. I did it only because I sincerely wanted to get help for the villagers,” Khairul told The Vibes.
He said that after he posted the photos on Facebook under the name A Korn Korn, many NGOs contacted him to express their intention to help.
“However, it was the Amal Team that was the quickest to make a donation, as they purchased the boats virtually the very next day after they called me. They also paid for the transportation fees for the boats to get to the village.
“Thanks to them, the pupils can now go to school safely,” he said.
Khairul thanked the Amal Team as well as other NGOs and individuals who came forward to help the villagers.
Each of the new boats can accommodate up to 20 people and transport 29 SK Mengkapon students from the two villages.
While this has served as a stop-gap measure for the problem of boat overcapacity, founder and chairperson of Persatuan Jangakauan Kasih Pitas, Fauziah Stephens, said that the best long-term solution is to build a hostel at SK Mengkapon for students from Kg Pituru and Kg Timbang Taun.
Fauziah suggested this while speaking during a forum titled “Fixing Hanging Bridges: Government’s Job or Ours?” organised by Sabah Way Forward and Kupikupi FM live on Facebook recently.
However, The Vibes understands that plans to build a hostel at the school are in the works, and that construction of the dorm will be funded by Sabah Credit Corporation. – The Vibes, January 23, 2022
