The Floating Classroom or A Drop in the Ocean?
In every country, Malaysia is no exception, no matter how well developed or prosperous, some people will always live at the fringes of society.
Here, they are the sick or handicapped, refugees or displaced persons, illegal immigrants or people with uncertain legal or national status.
In the hot spot are those, whose protection, development and education should be the main focus of any society: children.
Accompanied by my husband, Ambassador Dr. Gruber, I recently spent a couple of days in Sabah, visiting a charity school project, which is being sponsored by the German Embassy for the first time.
Torben Venning, director of Borneo Child Aid, also known as Humana Child Aid Society Sabah, and his wife Rosalie took us to several learning centres around Lahad Datu, Semporna and Tawau. Via 4WD and boat we went to 4 of the 112 schools run by the organisation.
9000 children receive primary education here, most of them in one of the 104 plantation schools. These are tucked away in the huge, remote palm oil plantations and provide basic education for a part of the estimated 25.000-50.000 children of Indonesian workers, born on the plantations, who otherwise would be without any schooling.
Several BCA schools in small towns provide education for children of (illegal) migrant workers mostly from Mindanao.
Plantation children and immigrant town labourers' children have no access to Malaysian schools, mainly because of their legal status, distance and poverty.
Child labour, criminality, substance abuse, sexual abuse and prostitution are ever present dangers.
Government agencies, NGOs, Companies (also a German one), plantation owners, Embassies and individuals contribute to the humanitarian work of BCA, which since 1996 maintains a growing number of learning centres predominantely in the Lahad Datu, Tawau, Semporna and Sandakan region.
