Children walk two hours to school
By Philip Kiew
MIRI: They have to walk two hours to school; starting at 4am and returning home at 4pm for lunch in an unbelievably hard life and heartbreaking thirst for education.
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Resilient Christopher, seven, and elder sister Jeniffer, 10, have to wake up at 3am every schooling day and start walking an hour later in darkness to daylight for 20km, to reach SRK Pujut Corner. Mother Hu Bee Chu accompanies them all the way in a heart-wrenching story of tough life.
Tucked in the farmhouse, nearly 18km from the junction of Miri bypass road near the water gate of the Drainage and Irrigation Department, these two slender children have been walking to school since they first stepped into a preschool classroom.
Their heart-rending story only came to light when their father, Jang Enggan, who is unemployed, and with a partially paralysed left hand, had walked two hours from their house to take a bus to Miri City Council to meet up with Henry Jalin after hearing the later on radio talking on the urban poverty eradication programme in an interview on Thursday night.
Jang took a bunch of banana from the farm and sold it for RM6, and paid RM1 for the bus fare to meet Henry yesterday morning to relate his heart-wrenching tale.
The bus fare cost RM1.60 but because the driver knew Jang very well, he was resigned to accepting only RM1 from this poor soul.
He had to pay RM5 for his left hand’s physiotherapy at Miri hospital for an injury sustained after a fall in the work place at the army camp last July.
The trip from his home to the hospital usually takes him at least four hours as he walked all the way; stopping to take rests in between.
“I had to sell some fruits or pluck ‘midin’ (local fern) to sell to get some money today (yesterday). I had to do it because I wanted very much to meet Henry,” he said.
Miri City Caring Society (MCCS) was notified, and the relevant facts and documents to ascertain the help needed by this family, including a visit to their farmhouse where an oil palm plantation company has claimed rights of ownership, were put together.
Jang and his family were formerly living in their squatter house at Pujut Corner before a major fire struck and destroyed it with many others in 1998.
“The authorities told us that there are no more resettlement lots, and offered us low-cost flat to buy, but I had no money and had no choice but to move to our farm hut and their mother had to walk the children to school and back,” he sighed.
Christopher and Jeniffer had to miss one week of school this year due to flood.
“Let me tell you, our children have not missed even a single day of school without any good reason,” the mother said. Strangely, the family never received any flood relief assistance.
Christopher and Jeniffer have other siblings, including eldest brother Edward Jarau, 23, who is already away trying to make a living; Augustine, 14, who is studying in Sri Aman with the help of the Welfare Department; and a 19-year-old sister who has run away from home 10 years ago.
With them in the farmhouse is William Wat, 16, who does odd jobs to help support their schooling. William himself left school after completing Primary 6.
Jang worries about his future when his farm and shelter are gone when the plantation arrives at his footstep as some farms in the area are already affected.
MCCS chairman Pemanca Wilson Siang and his committee met yesterday over the case, and they have decided that MCCS will assist in liaising with the relevant authorities for the appropriate assistance for the family.
“Education is the most important thing for the two younger children, and perhaps getting them into a boarding school may be the answer while the family may have no home soon if the plantation comes in,” said Wilson.
Meanwhile, Jalin said the council would identify the form of assistance, which could be channelled to the family while MCCS will bring up the matter with the relevant authorities.
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