Introduction
This proposal is a combined program initiated by the Middle Baram Penan community and some concerned individuals that include those working with a Kuching-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) – SACCESS.
Penans in Sarawak have shown themselves to be consistent defenders of their human rights (customary, constitutional/legal etc). Penans in general have long been associated with blockading against intruding loggers into the people’s lands and forests in Ulu Baram. Ulu Baram is also the place in which pockets of primary forests are still home to Penans.
Middle Baram Penans have had their lands and forests encroached and destroyed much earlier since the 1980s. However, they had not been as much supported by outsiders as the Ulu Baram Penans are.
With lands and forests destroyed, the daily problems faced by the people become more acute. Poverty has since been more prevailing among the people. From being self-sufficient in food and living (food, materials for housing, water, safe environment to live, work and hunt etc) to now dependent on external assistance, the people are now more at the mercy of external forces. Governments and timber companies insist that the people must surrender their rights to lands and forests in order to have “development”. With examples aplenty about how such externally driven “development” causes more suffering then relieving, and an informed community which refuses to accept the need to trade off rights for development, the Middle Baram Penans continue to live on their lands.
Consequences
One of the most classic examples of how Penans cannot speak or act freely without being punished can be seen from the recent rape cases that became public at end 2008. Since then, even the Federal Women Ministry has confirmed rapes of young Penan girls and women in Middle Baram.
The most direct consequence of speaking out against such crime has been the withdrawal of transport by the logging companies which had provided the occasional and infrequent transports to the Penans. Yet this reliance on logging company transport is also a main source of women’s and young girls’ vulnerability to rape and other sexual exploitation. With Penan settlements rather scattered, and routes through jungle trails which used to be safe since been destroyed by logging, the people have no alternatives but to use the logging roads created. With poverty high among the people, cash is a luxury that is hard to come by and not in any big amount.
The remote area of Sarawak and the Penan have been under-served by the government for a long time. Clinics are far apart, primary schools are few and transportation cost is prohibitive (no public transport). Government is very selective and thus restrictive in initiating any pre-school program in remote areas – eg: only at very few villages with primary schools (like in Long Lamai in Ulu Baram).
Pre-School Program
While efforts are being organized to tackle transportation problems faced by the people, there is also the urgent and yet unattended problems of schooling. Specifically, the problems of drop-out even at primary school level have been increasing. NGOs working with the communities have long recognized the need to prepare Penan children before they enter primary schools. This recognition comes from years of observation and discussion with Penan parents and children who had dropped out after just 1-2 years of primary schools. The situation is rather prevailing in many of the Penan settlements in Middle Baram.
What had been identified as problems leading to the drop-out are few folds. One is about the language, whereby Penan children growing up in their communities are not exposed to any other languages except their mother-tongue language – i.e. Eastern Penan language. Then when they reach the age of primary school, these children are immediately faced with an alien national language of Bahasa Malaysia and or English – the two languages of instruction in schools nearest to the communities. Many students are just in no position to keep-up and before long, other problems arise, from failing subjects to losing interest which then lead to punishments at the school. Before long, the students are isolated in an education system that is least catered to students from the Penan communities in remote areas.
The above should also be placed in the context of primary school students having to start their first day at school away from parents who cannot afford to be with their children. Students live in hostels in schools that are out of the community care and feelings and instead, students are expected to be able to face such living away from home at such young age on their own.
Some attempts at pre-school education had started at a few settlements in the past but this had to stop when funds run out and external organizations are not around to give organizational support. This proposal differs to others in some key areas, i.e.:
- Local NGO personnel and Penan activists are working with community people to prepare, plan, implement and monitor the program. Effectively, it is being organized into a program with structure, with clearly defined roles, tasks and responsibilities;
- A system of reporting, accountability, and monitoring is being prepared for implementation;
- Clear roles and responsibilities are to be agreed upon by various parties, especially with parents and Penan villagers before the execution of the program;
- Local Malaysian public support through individual donations and involvement
Objectives
- To provide community-based pre-school education to Penan children in Middle Baram;
- To prepare children for entry into primary school education system (in language, discipline, routine, socializing etc);
- To serve as a model for other community-based, community-run and non-profit pre-school program;
Proposed Villages
Together with the Middle Baram Penan communities, this proposal is targeting two pre-schools in the area.
The first pre-school is targeted at Long Itam. This school will serve Long Itam and Long Kawi villages, whereby it is about 30 minutes apart. Together, there are about 60 children who are between four and six years old who are the targeted children for the pre-school. Long Itam and Long Kawi have about 70 families in total, numbering some 250 people. Long Itam is identified because there is an under-used building that can be easily converted as a school building and the headman is fully supportive of the pre-school. He has been consulted and has been actively involved in the discussion.
The second pre-school is to be at Long Pakan. Long Pakan is the biggest among a group of few Penan settlements and most easily accessible by the communities and from outside. This pre-school location has about 50 students while there are surrounding villages which pre-school children can also be catered to.
Brief Pointer Description of Villagers
- Farmers and hunters and gatherers;
- Little cash available
- Isolated and fighting to defend land rights against encroachments of logging companies;
- With minimal outside support, trying to defend rights, hold onto culture, traditions, values and living
- Want development like schools and clinics, basic necessities like electricity, and clean water (used to have clean water until logging companies pollute the people’s water source)
Teachers
Each school will have one teacher who will live in the village. There will be a coordinating teacher who will visit each school at least once in each term.
- Joining a network of community-run pre-school currently running in two other villages;
- There is a coordinating teacher who visits all schools to check on quality and standards and overall running of the pre-school programs, who also act as on-the-spot trainer;
- Two Penan women who finished Form Five had been to past pre-school training programs and are identified as teachers to start the school.
Management Committee
A management committee comprising of Headmen, Teachers, Area pre-school coordinator, Sarawak NGO personnel and other volunteers will oversee the running of the schools. The committee welcome participation from West-Malaysia based NGO personnel and or contributor to sit in the committee.
Budget
|
Expense |
OUTSIDE
Contribution (RM) |
| At Community Level |
|
| 1. |
2 Pre-school teachers’ salary @ RM500.00 monthly for 12 months in a year for 2 years |
24,000 |
| 2. |
Teachers’ medical fees @ RM250 per teacher per year |
1,000 |
| 3. |
Teachers’ Training @ RM1000 per teacher per year for 2 years |
4,000 |
| 4. |
Teaching Materials @ RM1500 per year per school:
- text books
- exercise books
- pens, pencils, rulers, chalks, colour pensils etc.
|
6000 |
| 5. |
Recreational/Physical Education materials @ RM500 per school per year for 2 years |
2,000 |
| 6. |
Annual School Sports cum Year-End Day @ RM500 per year per school |
2,000 |
| 7. |
First Aid Kits & replenishment |
500 |
| 8. |
Building Renovation of RM5000 per school* (one-off event for materials prepared by communities & writing board) |
10,000 |
| 9 |
Transportations |
2,000 |
| 9. |
Misc./contingencies (reports, communication, emergencies, coordinator’s travel etc) |
3500 |
|
|
|
| TOTAL FOR 2 YEARS |
55000 |
First Year requirement:
- RM10,000 for building renovation;
- Half of all other cost = RM22,500
- Sub-Total = RM32,500
Second Year requirement:
For 110 students, the total external cost needed amount to about RM250 per student per year. |
* There is an existing community building in both Long Itam and in Long Pakan which can be easily renovated to be converted into a school
Community contributions:
- labour for school building construction/renovation, organizing of materials etc;
- provide accommodation and care to kids from nearby Penan villages;
- labour to maintain school compounds;
- Involved in the management of the school and getting parents involved in the running of the school
Villagers’ Responsibilities and Rules
- Parents must agree that students must attend school according to the school hours. Both villages Headmen had agreed to set up a special village education committee to find solutions to problems.
- Parents must make sure, with support from the teacher and or others, that their children stay at school during the school hours
- The village where the school is located must play host (meaning to have families to take care, house etc and make arrangements with parents) to teacher and children from nearby village.
- Headman must make sure schools are running regularly and to constantly discuss with teachers of what problems faced and how to solve problems among themselves first. If cannot solve, then to inform the regional coordinator and or outside people for help.
- All parents must fill in a form to register their children, and sign to agree to the rules and regulations of the school.
- At the end of each month and each term, all the parents must meet with the teachers to discuss progress, problems etc about the school and about their children.
- Villagers must organise gotong-royong to keep the school compound safe, clean and tidy.
- Teachers to work with villagers to keep the school in safe and clean conditions.
- Villages to allocate any existing unused/not fully used buildings that are safe for use as classrooms. Some money may be given to repair and or convert to classrooms.
- 10. Teachers must produce monthly reports.
Donation:
- Cheque please made payable to; KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (please mark at the back of the cheque: “Avatar Programme”)
- Bank Account: Public Bank 3077 138 310
- Please send your bankin slip to: email: info@malaysiayouth.com or fax number: 03-22724089 marked “Avatar Programme”.
- We operate on an “insist for receipt” policy, kindly indicate to whom the receipt is to be made to.
- We will publish donors’ list for acknowledgement, kindly indicate name or anonymous to be listed.
For further information, please contact:
Tehyeekeong@gmail.com