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12th July, 2010
KOTA KINABALU:
A joint effort by Tawau and Australian students helped to build houses
for three families in Sabah. The group comprising 17 students from
Tawau and 15 from Australia carried out the task from July 5 to 10 this
year taking over from another group of French student volunteers.
The
previous group was from the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel
International School who finished their part on June 30. The
Australians from the University of New South Wales and students from
the Tawau Vision Secondary School were volunteers for the Habitat for
Humanity Kota Kinabalu to help build homes for people.
During
the five-day project, the students worked together to build a concrete
house in Kg. Nosoob in Penampang and Kg. Beringgis in Papar. The Tawau
volunteers only took on the third project which was a stilt house in
Kg. Tuavon, Penampang.
Leonard Rowe, 23, the Australian
volunteers’ team leader, said the work provided an excellent
opportunity for him to experience a different culture and lifestyle and
to integrate with the locals. Leonard, who has worked in similar
projects in Cambodia, Philippines and Mongolia, said there was a need
to build better houses in Sabah.
“Everyone should have a
decent place to live in. When people have proper houses, it will create
more productivity in the country. I think the problem of poor housing
is more prevalent in the outskirts compared to cities.”
Lisa
Huang, 22, said the work provided a good opportunity to tell other
people about the good work done by Habitat for Humanity, adding there
was a lack of proper facilities for building houses here.
Dane
Ricketts, 22, who has done voluntary work for the Habitat Home in the
Philippines, said he would love to come back to Sabah one day to see
the “fruits of his labour.”
Emy Lun, 21, said: “It’s
rewarding to be able to make a difference in people’s lives and to work
with local volunteers. With this project I have the chance to give
something back to the community.”
Dane said none of the
volunteers were skilled house builders as many of them are studying
subjects entirely unrelated to house building. He and Emy, for example,
study commerce while Lisa is a student in psychology and Leonard is
studying mining and civil engineering.
Meanwhile,
16-year-old Andrew Philip from the Tawau Vision Secondary School who is
the Kg. Beringgis team leader said he learned a lot while undertaking
the recent projects.
“It was hard work physically but
through these projects I learned a lot of new skills such as mixing
cement. I’m also more aware of the plight of other Sabahans living in
other districts and hopefully we can use this as baseline to help
others in future,” he said.
Melvin Joshua, 16, said: “The
projects teach you how to build houses and teach you how to be
disciplined in terms of teamwork and taking instructions from your team
leaders. The work also gives you an opportunity to build relationships
with other people, with the Australian volunteers.”
The
boys said they would be happy to return for more projects in the
future. The Australian volunteers will be leaving Sabah on Tuesday
while the Tawau students left for home last Saturday.
The
Kg. Nosoob house is nearing completion while the houses in Kg.
Beringgis and Kg. Tuavon are about 80 and 70 per cent completed.
Habitat
for Humanity is a non-government organisation that seeks to eliminate
housing poverty worldwide. The organisation works with families in need
from all backgrounds, ethnic groups and religions to build decent homes
in partner communities.
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