May 30, 2016 Monday
By Olivia Miwil
KOTA KINABALU: A group of Universiti Malaysia Sabah
students spend their weekends teaching stateless children at a market here to provide them with basic education.
Second-year Sociology and Social Anthropology
student Naim Fahmi, 22, from Terengganu is one of the pioneers who started the volunteer service after learning that street children
had no schooling.
“When we did a video project on ‘cycle of
poverty’ early this year, a child told us that he had never heard of school and that he learnt everything from the market.
“That was when a group of us decided to use our own pocket money to teach these children,” he said,
adding that in March, a club known as Sekolah Jalanan Pasar Filipina was formed under
the purview of the university.
Every Sunday, members of the club teach reading, writing and maths to 40 children, aged between 3 and 12, at
the market.
While Bajau and Suluk are main languages
spoken by the children, they also use Bahasa Malaysia with the volunteers.
Naim said volunteers
also taught the children moral values, civic mindedness, and created awareness about the
consequences of vice activities.
“These children are exposed to
activities such as glue sniffing because they cannot differentiate between right and wrong. We hope through this project will help them lead better lives."
Initially, parentswere being sceptical about the initiative as they thought the students were from enforcement units. However, the students' sincerity in helping the children changed their mindset.
"Some parents send their children
to school before they go to work in the city," said Naim.
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