The biggest factory has only 3 workers!
When I visited our little new literacy center in Sabah (East Malaysia) recently, I peeped into the adjoining house. I saw 3 teenagers sitting around the dining table. At first I thought that they were eating breakfast. However, as people in villages tend to get up at sunrise, and it was already 10 am, I looked again to see what they were eating. They each seemed to be holding a piece of wafer or cracker in their hands As I looked more carefully, I realized that they weren’t eating anything but were cleaning the object that they were holding in their hands.
I asked permission to come into the house and saw that they were cleaning bird’s nest. Sabah is the home of a famous Chinese delicacy – the nest of a species of birds, the swifts. Swifts (a relative of the swallow) make their nests from their salivary secretions. They build their nests in the walls of limestone caves. The Sabah government issues licenses to gather these nests. When first harvested from caves, these nests are covered with filth and feathers. These 3 teenagers were busy cleaning these nests with tooth-brushes and fine tweezers.
It takes about 2 hours to remove hundreds of little black “dots” of dirt that are somewhat embedded in the white nest substance. For their effort they get 3 Malaysian dollars (less than US $1) for each nest that they clean. This is a good salary in this village. And the three teenagers are proud to have a choice job in the biggest factory in that village!
I met the boss of the factory. He proudly showed me a sheaf of licences that he had from the government. He was obviously very proud to be the owner of this factory. As he mentioned his list of “influential” friends in the village and town, I realized that this little factory with 3 workers was a major industry in that village!
Unless the kids in this village get a chance to learn to read and write, a job in this factory is probably the highest that they can ever achieve in this village.
Goducate believes that they deserve to have better opportunities than this one!