Every child deserves a decent education

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The Trek for a Cause aims to raise awareness and funds for the education of under-privileged children in Malaysia. It focuses on three groups of underprivileged children, namely :

(a) Children from poor coastal (Bajau Laut) communities in the east coast of Sabah

(b) Children from poor Orang Asli families
(c) Children of refugees

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I will elaborate on three groups of children in Malaysia who lack proper access to education. 

Bajau Laut

The Bajau Laut, sometimes referred to as sea gypsies, live mostly on the east coast of Sabah – mainly around Semporna, Tawau, Kunak and thereabouts. Many of them live on the outlying islands. Some families actually live on boats – earning a living as fisherfolks.  Of course there are Bajau Laut families that are well off but many are poor.

Bajau Laut children. Many families actually live on boats. Many do not go to school.

The level of poverty among the Bajau Laut communities tends to be very high. Many children do not go to school - either they can't afford it or there are simply no schools on island where they live. If you go to some of these islands, you will children loitering everywhere and not attending school. They spend their days hanging out at coffee shops, on the streets, sometimes doing odd jobs, sometimes simply sleeping on the streets. Their parents are simply too poor to send them to school, they are needed to work to help the family or the schools are too far away or non-existent. Since they don't have an education, they are caught in a vicious cycle that will forever keep them poor.

Orang Asli

In Peninsular Malaysia, the Orang Aslis are the most marginalised community. They mostly live in Kelantan, Pahang, Perak and Johor although some communities are also in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. Despite having lived on this land long before anyone else, their socio-economic conditions are way below other communities, poverty levels very high and life expectancy much lower than other communities [this means that they die much younger than people of other races].

Educational attainment of the OA community is well below that of the other Malaysians. Despite more than 50 years of independence, how many OA children do you think have graduated from our universities? I won’t tell you the answer – you go find out yourself. Many don’t even make it past primary school.

This is the home of an Orang Asli. At Kg. Kemensah. Only 15 km from KL city centre.

Staff from Muslim Aid conducting extra-curricular activities for Orang Asli children in Kelantan

Although schools have been built at many OA settlements, many children do not attend school regularly. Sometimes their parents take them to work or hunt or collect forest produce. Sometimes the schools are simply too far away (nobody likes walking 5 km every day to school). Sometimes teachers and other children poke fun at them at school – hence they avoid school. The children also fall sick frequently – preventing them from learning very much at school.

Refugee children

There are now about 105,000 refugees in Malaysia, registered with the UNHCR. Most of them are from Myanmar but there are also refugees from Sri Lanka, Somalia and Iraq in Malaysia. There could also be many unregistered ones. Out of this 100,000, about 20,000 are children. About half of this number, are of the school going age. Where do you think they get their education?

There are 20,000 refugee children in Malaysia. Half of them don't have proper access to education.

These children are not allowed in government schools. They are so poor that there is no way they can afford to study in the fee-paying private schools. Thousands don’t go to school at all – despite most of them living in the Kelang Valley. Can you imagine that? KL – the so-called metropolis of Malaysia and yet there are 10,000 children who cannot go to school because they don't have access. Their entire childhoods are being squandered.     [if you are interested to learn more, just Google "refugees in Malaysia"]

MY Team is working together with Yayasan Kemanusiaan Muslim Aid Malaysia to help these children with their education. Muslim Aid is a non-political and non-sectarian NGO, inspired by Islamic values, to serve the most needy irrespective of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality or political creed. Beneficiaries include orphans, refugees, poor communities and survivors of disasters. I know the people at Muslim Aid pretty well. They don’t talk very much, they simply work.

Muslim Aid focuses in tackling the persistent problems of poverty and suffering as a result of natural (e.g. flood, earthquake) and human disasters (e.g. endemic poverty, civil strife, wars). They have several programmes focussing on education for marginalised and/or poor communities (e.g. Orang Asli and refugee). You can visit their website here.

Our focus is EDUCATION.

Our belief : Every child, no matter his/her status, deserves a decent education.

The Trek for a Cause aims to raise awareness and funds for the education of under-privileged children in Malaysia. It focuses on three groups of underprivileged children, namely :

(a) Children from poor Orang Asli families

(b) Children from poor coastal (Bajau Laut) communities in the east coast of Sabah

(c) Children of refugees

The side of Mabul that you seldom see or hear

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The island of Mabul is of course well-known for its impressive marine life and diving spots. It is close to Sipadan, the other marine haven. Mabul attracts hordes of tourists every year.

What most people don't get to see and hear are these scenes. Tourist brochures and travel magazines will never show you these.

Extreme poverty. Entire families living on boats (the boat is their home)

Children loitering around instead of going to school (the national school doesn't accept them and the only school run by volunteers has been shut down)

The School of Hope which is run by volunteers and caters for 80 children has shut down. These 80 children don't get any education at all now.

Extreme poverty is ubiquitous

Plenty of children loitering aimlessly. Gambling is a major past time.

Trek for a Cause aims to help children in Mabul and the surrounding islands get a decent education.

Trek for a Cause - Helping the poorest of the poor

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In March this year, the MY team will depart for Katmandu to start our Trek for a Cause on the Everest Base Camp trek. The team will trek for 14 consecutive days, covering almost 100 km and climbing to a height of 17,520 ft. As many of you already know, one of our objectives is to raise awareness and funds for educating under-privileged children in Malaysia.

First of all, let me thank all those of you who have contributed generously. I won’t list the names – but you know who you are. And those of you who have pledged, I am going to come around collecting my dues soon hehehehe. Once again, thank you very much.

As I have explained earlier, the money will be used to help educate under-privileged children in Malaysia including cildren from poor Orang Asli families, refugee children and children from poor coastal communities in Sabah.

It is the last group (children from the Bajau Laut community) that are in a bad shape and really need help. They are, what I would consider, the poorest of the poor – in many ways.

The Bajau Lauts are sea farers. They are also known as the sea gypsies. Traditionally the Bajau Laut people have traversed the Sulu and Celebes seas. They were free spirits. It is estimated that there are about 50,000 of them in Sabah. Now many of them are stateless (they do not have any documents). Because they are stateless, they do not get any support or help from the government. Most of them earn a living by fishing. They live in wooden shacks built on water and the poorer among them, just live on boats.

We will be working with Muslim Aid Malaysia on three islands namely Mabul, Denawan and Kulapuan of Semporna in Sabah – each island has its own set of challenges. Our focus is to providebasic education for these children.

In Mabul, there is a government school and a religious school – both of which do not allow the stateless Bajau Laut children. Now several hundred children on Mabul get no education at all. The plan is to start a school to teach the children. The focus will be on 4 subjects – English, BM, Maths and Science. Remember – these children get no education at all now – so 4 subjects are better than nothing. Money is needed to pay for teachers (which provides employment to youth on the island), books and nutrition for the children. Even then, we can only cater for perhaps 25% of the children on the island. Things are made worse by the fact that there is little land on the island, most of the land on the island belongs to resorts.

None of these children go to school

The Bajau Laut village on the island of Mabul, just next to multi-million ringgit resorts.

On the island of Denawan, there is a government school which has 35 students and has plenty of room to cater for more. There are about 500 – 600 stateless children on the island who cannot go to this school because they have no documents. So the kids spend their days loitering on the island, gambling and at times begging from tourists on boats. As you can see from the photos, most of these kids are malnourished. The plan here is to establish a learning centre (the Department of Education will not allow it to be called “school”). This entails putting up a little building, paying for teachers, books and nutrition for the children. The advantage on Denawan is that there is land available and several villagers have volunteered to allow their land/house to be used as classrooms. Even with this programme, we can perhaps help 30% of the children only.

Since there is no school, let's gamble. Bingo anyone?

No school today, no school tomorrow. They have never been to school

When human being do not have enough to eat, dogs have eat coconuts

The island of Kulapuan is worst of the lot. There is no infrastructure on the island. No piped water, no electricity, no roads, no schools, no nothing. The population on the island is about 1100 with perhaps about 400 children in need of education. The kids spend their days loitering on the island and gambling. There are teenagers who cannot read and write. The plan here is just like in Denawan - to establish a learning centre. This entails putting up a little building, paying for teachers, books and nutrition for the children. There is land available.

No school today. Let's go on a begging expedition

This is what their houses look like

If we do not help, these kids will never go to school

Of course, to solve all the problems on all the islands off Sabah will require a great deal of resources. We don’t pretend that we can solve all the problems. Muslim Aid Malaysia and MY team can only try to help in a small way. The money raised by the Trek for a Cause alone will not be enough. Muslim Aid Malaysia has continuously looking for sponsors to fund these projects.

If you think being poor is bad, try being poor and stateless. Governments will pretend you do not exist. Most NGOs will stay away because of the “sensitivities”. The public is often reluctant to help because “we don’t know if they are our people”. The fact remains that there are thousands of these children in our country who do not get any education and who are severe malnourished. They live here. They will grow up here.

Mahatma Gandhi once said “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.  On that note, our nation’s greatness can also be judged by the way we treat the poor, the homeless, the destitute and the voiceless (including the animals).

Is your house too small? Let's complain

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Do you always complain about your house? If you do, you are not alone. It common to hear these grouses among people in the Klang Valley about their homes. 

My house is too small lah. Only 2 rooms.
My house is too close to the school. Always traffic jam.
My porch is not big enough to park 2 cars.
My house faces the playground. Children make a lot of noise.
My house has no compound. Cannot do gardening lor
My house has no proper place to fix the aircon
The water pressure to my bathroom is not strong
The evening sun hits my bedroom. The room gets hot quickly.
The flooring in the patio is loose - it creaks when I walk on it. Leceh betul.
The smoke from my wet kitchen gets into my dry kitchen. Grrrrrr

If you have some of the above complaints, then you have half a molecule of my sympathy. Only half a molecule. Kesiannya engkau, nah pisang sebijik, pergi main jauh jauh.


The next time, you have a complaint about your house, please spare a thought for these people. The Bajau Laut folks in the east coast of Sabah also have a few complaints about their houses. I think I will attend to them first.

Your house is hot? Ours is hot too. With the zinc roof, the temperature in our house is a cool 40 deg C.

Sorry about the flooring on your patio being loose. In our case, only the entire foundation is loose.

Your porch is too small to park two cars? We don't have a porch to worry about.

We don't have a kitchen - so there is no problem of the smoke from the wet kitchen getting into the dry kitchen.

Like you, we too don't have a proper place to fix the air-conditioning. In fact, we don't have a proper place to fix anything since our house itself might disintegrate soon.

Is your house too small ? Our entire families live on boats. Masak, makan, tidur, main - semua atas bot.

We haven't even got grass to play on - so the problem of the playground being too noisy doesn't arise.

Seberat-berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu yang memikul

Monyet King says

So people, stop whining. Whatever problem you have with your house, it is tiny compared to what these Bajau Laut communities in the east coast of Sabah have to deal with. 

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The Trek for a Cause aims to raise awareness and funds for the education of under-privileged children in Malaysia. It focuses on three groups of underprivileged children, namely :

(a) Children from poor Orang Asli families

(b) Children from poor coastal (Bajau Laut) communities in the east coast of Sabah

(c) Children of refugees

How to contribute

Option 1 : Send a cheque

You can write out a cheque to Yayasan Kemanusiaan Muslim Aid Malaysia and then post it or courier it. Please give your full name and address so that an official receipt can be sent to you. Please write "Trek for a Cause 2015" at the back of your cheque.

Address :

Yayasan Kemanusiaan Muslim Aid Malaysia

8-1-2, Menara Mutiara Bangsar

Jalan Liku

59100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-22881996
Fax : 03-22881966

If it is more convenient to you, you can pass the cheque to any members of the MY team. Please use the donation form so that we have your details.

Option 2 : Direct Deposit

You can directly deposit money into Muslim Aid’s bank account. For the purpose of record keeping, please either fax (03-22881966) or post your Trek for a Cause donation form (see below) to Muslim Aid or email the scanned form to mail@muslimaid.org.my. Please also give your full name and address so that an official receipt can be sent to you.

CIMB Bank Account Number 8600 1108 50

Yayasan Kemanusiaan Muslim Aid Malaysia

If you are making payment from another country, the Swift Code is CTBBMYKL. Please state Trek for a Cause 2015 when making payment.

Note

Donations to Yayasan Kemanusiaan Muslim Aid Malaysia are tax exempt.

Children of Kulapuan - out of sight, out of mind

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Pulau Kulapuan is just an hour by boat from our world famous Sipadan and Mabul islands. To go to Kulapuan, you could get a boat from Semporna and reach the island in 1 - 2 hours (depending on the type of boat that you use). There are no hotels or resorts on Kulapuan. It is just a village of about 1000 people, out of which probably 600 - 700 are children. It is an island that is out of sight, out of mind to most Malaysians.

None of the children go to school. There is no school on the island. The nearest schools are too far away on other islands and these people simply cannot afford to send their children. Entire generations have grown up without knowing how to read or write. 

When you are a toddler, you can play and play. There is no kindergarten, no preschool or nursery to teach you anything.

When you are littler bigger, there is still nothing to do. No school, no nothing. Just hang out and loiter in the village.

Then you learn how to gamble.

After all,all the adults in the village gamble too. There is not much to do anyway. The local gambling den.

Since there is no school or anything useful to do, you can always get into a boat and row around aimlessly or beg money from tourists.

When no one cares, you can always walk around aimlessly

Of course, sometimes there is work to do. Like getting water form the well. The drinking water source on the island. [and you people in Selangor think that you have a water supply problem?]

Finally, you can always return to your home after a hard day of loitering and gambling. This is what all the children do on this island.

Trek for a Cause aims to help children in Kulapuan and the surrounding islands get a decent education.