Help us keep children of Sonsogon Mongis in school: Activist

 By Olivia Miwil - July 18, 2023 @ 4:59pm

Activist Zazila Roslan and entourage surveyed the area after being told that extreme poverty caused the community ignored the necessity to send children to schools. - Pic courtesy of Zazila Roslan.

KOTA MARUDU: An activist has called on non-governmental organisations to help keep the children in the Sonsogon Mongis subdistrict in school.

Sabah Social Entrepreneurs Association (Sosea) president Zazila Roslan said due to extreme poverty, the 40-odd people from 11 families in the subdistrict have no choice but to settle with the bare minimum.

Based on her initial survey, Zazila found there were five children from the village who did not go to school.

The nearest available school is Sekolah Kebangsaaan Magandai, which is about 24 kilometres from Sonsogon Mongis.

"Apart from the distance, it is also difficult to convince the parents of the importance of sending their children to schools as they also have no basic education.

"Even if they are persuaded to stay at the hostel, these children have a lot to catch up on and they will eventually stop after a few months or probably will not continue their studies at secondary school," she said.

She made the visit to the sub district following concerns by teachers over the children in the community stopping school due to extreme poverty.

Zazila is the daughter of retired teacher Jusseh Agitor, who braced countless near-death experiences to go to school and teach her students in the off road and far-flung schools in the Keningau constituency.

There is only a community hall in the area where the occasional healthcare programmes are run from a mobile clinic.

The town is only accesible via four-wheel drive vehicles on a 68-kilometre road in poor condition.

With the cost of RM1,200 per return trip, the villagers here have give up to earn money through the selling of commodities such as rubber and other agriculture products.

"They do some farming but only for their own consumption. Initially they did rubber tapping but stopped as they incurred losses.

"The one-way fare to Kota Marudu is RM600, it is another RM600 coming back. The total transportation cost is RM1,200 but the villagers can only earn about RM300 from the rubber.

Zazila said she learned that it would take about five years for the road upgrading works to be completed but worried that it would result in another 20 years of poverty for the community.

"Therefore, I am hoping that non-governmental organisations would also reach out to Sonsogon Mongis.

"They need more than food supply assistance. A more frequent and long-term programme such as jungle school (for informal basic education) is needed to bridge their gap with the rest of people in more developed areas.

"If we have a mobile clinic, why not we have a mobile school? At least they will learn how to read, count and write."