PETALING JAYA: Stateless school children in Semporna are set to move into a new “school”, thanks to a kind soul who gave up his house and an NGO that worked hard to raise RM20,000 in just three days.
Sabah NGO Borneo Komrad was able to raise the funds it needed to transform a floating Bajau house donated to them into a school to cater for stateless and undocumented children who cannot go to regular schools.
“The money will go towards turning the house into a space more conducive to learning,” said Shakila Adiela Wan Azmi, manager of Sekolah Alternatif, the NGO’s free education project for underprivileged children.
“This is their basic right. They have had their rights neglected for so long, so we want to give them the education they deserve,” she told FMT.
The project is part of Borneo Komrad’s latest effort to provide free schooling to underprivileged stateless students in Sabah. They have already built schools in Semporna, Tawau and Kota Kinabalu.
Once the home of one of their students, the new “schoolhouse” was donated by the child’s father after the family found a new place to live.
It will be able to house 54 students aged seven to 17, most of whom will come from their existing Semporna facility. That school will then be converted into a more vocational skills based academy, equipping students with technical abilities such as cooking and sewing to give them better social mobility.
“With education, the children can create a better life for themselves and they can use what they’ve learned to enrich their own communities,” Shakila Adiela said.
She said the group’s next project would be upgrading the bridges around the school, which are old and unstable, and are potential safety hazards.
“The bridges to go to school are not so safe.They might be a bit more expensive, so we’ll have to discuss how much we need and where we’ll get funding.”
The new school is expected to be completed in the next two weeks. - FMT
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