Category: Malaysia

About 5 years ago Goducate heard that in a corner of Sabah there were some 1 million undocumented aliens, and that because of their status, the children were not entitled to state education. The children thus grew up loitering around or getting into mischief, until they, especially the boys, were old enough to find work in the plantations.

These people were mainly from the southern Philippines, who had since the 1960s been going to Sabah to escape the civil strife at home. At that time Sabah’s then Chief Minister, who had family ties in the Philippines, gave the Filipinos asylum. So many people are stateless now because their passports have expired, or because they have entered by the “back door”.

During Goducate’s exploratory visit, we learnt the community was keen for the children to have some education. But how were we to provide education for so many children? When we found out that some of the mothers had had some education in the Philippines, the strategy became clear. We would teach the mothers to teach the kids.

In this way we have opened more than 30-40 centers over the 5 years. It’s a fluctuating population, with some centers having to close because the people have been forced out. At the moment there are 30 centers, staffed by 64 teachers and assistant teachers. The focus of teaching is on literacy and numeracy. Goducate sends a trainer over several times a year to upgrade the teachers. To help the children find jobs, training in livelihood skills such as manicure, sewing, and cooking have also been introduced.

Because of the unsanitary conditions in which these communities live, Goducate has also introduced a health program that includes hygiene and deworming. For adults there is a screening and education program on hypertension and diabetes. And for all, there is a nutrition program, with communities being encouraged to plant moringa, a plant that provides many nutrients.

Most of the older children who have gone through our centers are either working—in shops, restaurants, spas, and factories, or as assistant teachers in our centers. Some have enrolled in schools (either private, or, if they now have identification papers, state schools) after having caught up with their basic literacy and numeracy at our centers.

For the 5th anniversary celebrations, the teachers were brought together to share their experiences informally as well as formally (which gave them practice in public speaking), to show their performing skills, to clarify what they wanted to know during a question-and-answer session, to be thanked for what they have done, to be encouraged to continue their good work, and generally to enjoy themselves. For many it was their first time attending a function in a modern hotel, a far cry from the village life they lead.

When we started our de-worming program in Sabah in March, 2012, we felt that it ought to be accompanied by the provision of nutritional supplements to the students and to the villagers at large. This is because in these poor communities, access to nutritional foods is limited. Toddlers often do not get sufficient milk or good nutritional food, so they grow up underweight and malnourished. The school-going kids are often infested by intestinal parasites, which cause poor physical development and malnourishment. Adults, especially women who go through multiple pregnancies and are breastfeeding their children, often end up anemic and weak.

What we want to provide is a sustainable solution to the nutritional needs of the community. In July 2012, we started to educate our teachers in Sabah about Moringa, a plant containing many nutrients. Teaching about theory is accompanied by cooking demonstrations using Moringa leaves as the main ingredient.

We recently received Moringa seeds and started to plant them in the compound of our main literacy center, but a recent flood wiped out our seedlings. Learning from this painful experience, our teachers now grow the seedlings on elevated racks.

We’ve also started to distribute these plants to those of our literacy centers located inland, for the teachers there to replicate the nursery and then hand out these Moringa plants to their students’ families, and we hope, eventually, to the rest of the community.

Riding on the activities of our de-worming program, our teachers decided to bring along free Moringa chicken porridge when they give out the de-worming treatment. This way, the students not only learn about the nutritional benefits of Moringa, they also get to taste it.

Students from one of our literacy centers even decided to turn a small plot of land behind their class into a Moringa nursery where they grow and look after the plants themselves.

We have noticed Moringa trees growing around the houses of some of our students, which indicates that some of the locals have adopted this plant as part of their diet. We hope to learn from these few villagers what made them adopt Moringa so readily, to help us expand acceptance of this plant across all the villages we serve.

About a year ago we started a de-worming program for students attending Goducate literacy centers in Sabah. By now we are able to conduct 6-monthly de-worming treatments for all our students, which is the recommended treatment frequency for children.

Many of our teachers have told us that their students are now better able to concentrate in class and are much more active than they used to be. To monitor the effect of the program, we are using WHO’s free software to calculate all our students’ height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) and to track their growth relative to age and sex.

Students identified as severely malnourished are followed up by our community health worker.

We are going to extend the de-worming treatment to the students’ immediate families, who will be charged a nominal fee to cover the cost of the medication. To ensure that we can keep up with the program, we have trained two more community health workers, so that there is now a team of three.

Our local community health workers are also equipped with a digital blood-pressure machine and also a glucometer (for measuring blood sugar). They are trained to recognize abnormal readings and provide health advice accordingly. Villagers now approach these workers for routine follow-up to monitor their blood pressures and/or their blood sugar levels.

Through these activities, we have raised awareness among the adults of diabetes and hypertension and also of the pervasive problem of poor sanitation and its impact on their children’s health and growth.