10,000 stationeries distributed to B40 kids
Published on: Sunday, December 11, 2022
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Teachers and pupils displaying their bags of stationery sets.
The districts comprise Beaufort, Keningau, Kinabatangan, Kota Kinabalu, Kota Marudu, Kuala Penyu, Kudat, Nabawan, Papar, Penampang, Pitas, Putatan, Ranau, Sipitang, Tenom, Tuaran (covering Tamparuli, Kiulu and Tenghilan), Kota Belud, Tawau, Tambunan and Beluran.
The initiative first started at SK Pulau Gaya in January this year, culminating in the finale at SK Mesilou this month.
On December 5, President of The Society of Hope Sabah, Josephine Hadikusumo received the certificate of recognition from MBR Officer Puan Lee Pooi Leng at the presentation ceremony held at Spring Garden in Kundasang, Ranau.
Thumbs-up: Syukri, Hasinin, Lee and Junaidy to Hadikusumo upon her receiving the MBR Certificate from Lee.
Hadikusumo sharing the MBR accolade with the teachers and pupils of SK Bundu Tuhari, volunteers and others after the presentation ceremony at Spring Garden, Kundasang.
Hadikusumo presenting a bag of stationery sets to a pupil at SK Tambulaong, Tamparuli.
The document certifies that the Society is now listed in the MBR for completing the “Most Number of Stationery Sets Distributed to Children”.
Ranau Assistant District Officer Hasinin Kinsim, who officiated at the event, lauded The Society for its charitable contributions in the field of education.
He was happy to note that Ranau is one of the 20 districts selected for the “Jom Balik Sekolah” programme.
“Eight primary schools in the district have benefited from The Society’s initiative. And today (Dec 5), some 208 sets of school stationery were given out to pupils at SK Mesilou alone.
“I am impressed with the commitment, enthusiasm and hard work put in by The Society’s team. They travelled the length and breadth of Sabah as far as Nabawan in the interior.
“As a government representative, I welcome and am ready to assist by supporting the Society’s effort if it plans to hold any social programme in the near future,” Hasinin assured, while congratulating the members on being accorded MBR recognition.
Also present was the Headmaster of SK Bundu Tahuri, Junaidy Ajamain.
Earlier, in her address, Hadikusumo said: “Our journey has brought us to 80 schools across this beautiful state. These stationery sets have reached children who live in hard to reach terrain in the interior areas, children who live near rivers, jungles, paddy fields, children who live by the sea and children who live in the highlands of Sabah.
“We have traversed the state from Tawau to Kuala Penyu, from Kota Marudu to Nabawan, from Kudat to Tambunan, and many other districts in between. We have had the privilege of meeting children from every race and religion and their wonderful dedicated teachers.
“Their joy at receiving these sets made the journey so worthwhile for the team. I am personally very thankful we have had the opportunity to touch so many lives in the course of this one year.”
The President attributed their success to collaboration and partnership with teachers, sponsors and volunteers.
She said: “I want to express my gratitude to the Malaysia Book of Records for working with us throughout this journey from the time we brought up this initiative to this moment when we have actually achieved our goal.
“My profound thanks too, to the volunteers who have helped us along the way, from the Hope team, namely Grace, Agnes, Carmen and Flora, to Headmaster Encik Junaidy, and pilot Sofia who works with the Sabah Flying Doctor Service, and the many, many caring teachers we have met this year who try their best every day to make life better for the children they teach.”
According to Hadikusumo, parents try their hardest every day to provide for their children’s school necessities, but when food security remains an issue among the hardcore poor, school needs become very much a luxury for many.
“We in the Society believe that education is one of the main ways to lift communities out of the cycle of poverty. That is why our focus is to provide as much support as we can to these children to encourage them to remain in school and succeed at their studies.”
In an interview with Daily Express, Hadikusumo touched on the rationale behind the Society’s “Jom Balik Sekolah” programme, the challenges encountered in its mission to reach out to underprivileged children in remote districts, and the organisation’s future plans.
She said the national record for distributing the most number of stationery sets in Malaysia helps to draw attention to the needs of these children “so that we could highlight the plight of the invisible poor in our state.”
Far from resting on its laurels, the Society will continue to work towards supporting the welfare of vulnerable communities in Sabah.
“We are looking for corporate and public sponsors who can provide mini-scholarships for diligent students from the B40 communities around Sabah. With their support, we will be able to lessen the financial burden of some of these students in 2023. When we lift up the lives of children, our future generation, we all rise together,” Hadikusumo shared.
Rest of the interview:
DE: When was the idea mooted?
Hadikusumo: When we mooted the idea in 2021, we had one goal in mind, and that is to support the educational needs of Sabahan children who come from underprivileged backgrounds.
DE: What prompted the Society of Hope to initiate its “Jom Balik Sekolah” programme with focus on free stationery sets?
Hadikusumo: Towards the end of 2021, we realised that B40 communities emerging from the pandemic were struggling with food security. This means that necessities like exercise books and stationery were very much considered a luxury for many of them even though these items were indispensable to learning. We also received feedback from teachers that they often had to supply these items for free for children whose families could not afford it.
The Society of Hope believes that education is one of the main ways communities can lift themselves out of the cycle of abject poverty, and so the ability and fortitude to stay in school was critical, especially during the formative years of the child. That is why we wanted to support the educational needs of children from B40 communities in the hope that they would be encouraged to stay in school and focus on achieving their aspirations.
DE: How were you able to execute the programme and bring it to fruition in less than a year?
Hadikusumo: We were fortunate to be able to receive funding and donations from various sectors. That was the starting-point for us because without funding, we would be limited in our ability to fulfil this mission. In addition, we were supported by the parliamentary/district service centres of the MPs and ADUNs (State Assemblymen) in some of the areas where distribution was occurring.
Thanks to Samaritan Sofia (right, top picture), pupils of SK Saliliran, Nabawan get to receive their free stationery sets (bottom picture).
For example, we received funding and logistics support from the Tawau MP at the time for the stationery sets that we were distributing for the district. We also received logistics support from the Karanaan Community Development Leader Unit (UPPM) Officer, Syukri Saridih who led us to the schools in the Karanaan area. Beyond that, the team relied on volunteers like Headmaster Junaidy Ajamain and his teachers who helped us with logistics and coordination, Sofia William who works with the Sabah Flying Doctor Service and was able to fly the supplies by helicopter to hard-to-reach places (where health services are provided regularly), and Mr Lee Su Ken from Kudat who led us to the various schools we visited there. The Society of Hope team spent a lot of time communicating with various schools to coordinate these visits. The main reason we were able to meet our goals was really due to the diligence and dedication of the team in seeing this through.
DE: How was the Society of Hope able to identify potential recipients?
Hadikusumo: Our focus was on schools located in what is considered ‘kawasan pedalaman’. These were schools off the beaten track, often with fewer students overall than the city schools, and sometimes located in inaccessible places. Our research shows that the vast majority of students in these schools come from B40 communities which are the target groups for the Society of Hope Sabah. We also received feedback from our volunteers who would suggest a particular school that would fit the profile. We tried to visit schools that were not that big so that we would be able to distribute the stationery sets to every student there without leaving anyone out.
DE: Can you talk about the challenges faced by the Society in delivering the goods?
Hadikusumo: We went to schools in 20 districts in Sabah. I wish we could have gone to more, but we have limited funding which meant that we could not go to districts that required logistically more travel days than we could afford or required air travel. There were also really difficult-to-reach places whereby one had to travel by boat in crocodile-infested rivers or places where even a four-wheel drive would not be able to reach. But we were anxious not to leave the children in these localities out of the program.
DE: How did the Society overcome these challenges?
Hadikusumo: For some of these schools, we invited their teachers and representatives to collect the stationery kits from a staging area and then deliver them to the children upon their return. For others, we worked with the lady pilot (Sofia) to deliver these sets in places we could not reach by car.
DE: Generally, were parents appreciative of the Society’s benevolent gesture?
Hadikusumo: The feedback we got from the parents and teachers was very positive. In fact, some of the parents were present during the presentation ceremony and expressed their gratitude for the stationery kits, saying that this really lessened their burden to provide for their children’s schooling needs.
DE: Are the children making good use of these free stationery sets?
Hadikusumo: The children seemed very excited to receive them. We provided enough exercise books to last them the whole year so that they would not need new books until the start of the new school year. The teachers also seemed very relieved as they are the ones dealing with the pressures of having a child without school necessities sometimes in the middle of the year.
DE: Now that the Society has accomplished its mission, what is next in the pipeline?
Hadikusumo: We have ended this year on a high note, and I am grateful to God for His blessings and guidance on this journey. We are hoping to continue this “Jom Balik Sekolah” program for 2023, but this will depend on how successful we will be in obtaining funding. It is our intention to try. I am really hoping we could provide school bags also for the children the next time around.
DE: Do you have other plans in mind?
Hadikusumo: In addition, I am looking forward to working with individual, corporate or governmental sponsors to set up mini-scholarships for Year 3 students in 2023. Recipients should be diligent students with good attendance records and come from B40 communities.
The mini-scholarships should provide for their school needs until Year 6, and be handled administratively by the schools. These scholarships should encourage these young children to stay in school and take some of the pressure off their families to provide for their school needs.
DE: You have expressed the Society’s wish to continue to work towards supporting the welfare of vulnerable communities in Sabah. How do you propose to go about it?
Hadikusumo: We are focused on uplifting the lives of children from vulnerable communities in Sabah. During the pandemic, we distributed more than 6000 packs of milk powder and some food baskets to children from B40 communities between the ages of 1-5 to support their nutritional needs. For the whole of 2022, we worked on ensuring that children between 5-12 from B40 households had at least their basic educational needs looked after through the supply of stationery sets and exercise books. We will continue to raise funds and awareness on the plight of these children in Sabah and work to support their needs either through the provision of school necessities or mini-scholarships. For the early part of 2023, we will spend some time raising funds to support our program for the latter part of the year.
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