“Upon the embassy’s encouragement during a community visioning and organizing workshop in Sandakan last March, the Filipino community in Sabah has established a learning center to provide the children of our migrant nationals there with basic reading, writing, arithmetic and other life skills. We hope that through this community-based initiative, we can encourage these children to pursue further education for a chance at a better life,” Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya said in a news release.
Children of migrant families in Sabah have limited access to local public schools.
The center, located in Kota Kinabalu, is being managed by the center’s chairperson Marilou Chin and assistant chairperson Levi Bation. It is currently funded by donations from members of the Filipino community in Sabah. Embassy officers and staff recently “passed the hat” to provide additional funding assistance.
“Once again, our Filipino community has displayed the spirit of bayanihan in heeding the embassy’s call in assisting our nationals’ children who need education for a better life. We hope and pray that the center will prosper further and live up to its name in providing a ‘stairway to hope’ for children in Sabah,” Malaya said.
The learning center is currently located in a compound owned by a local benefactor, who offered the use of the area for free. Two Filipino volunteer teachers staff the center. They teach English, Bahasa Melayu, Arithmetic, and Filipino, along with basic reading, writing, counting, and good conduct. The teachers receive a minimum allowance.-Interaksyon (September 24, 2012 11:40AM)
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