The Floating Classroom - Part 2
School uniforms and lovingly organized graduation ceremonies help create pride and a sense of belonging to the children and their parents.
The teachers, sent by the Indonesian and Philippine Governments, teach combined curricula, taking into account the children's various cultural and religious backgrounds.
After graduation from Primary School the majority of the children, now aged 13 or 14, leave Malaysia. Their legal status doesn't allow secondary education or the prospect of legal work.
What happens to these children who „return“ to their „home country“, a place they've never seen before? Are there reports or even some success stories?
Torben cannot present statistics , but he tells us about friends keeping in touch after returning to Sulawesi , the home of most of the Indonesian plantation workers.
„These are very special alumnis“, says Torben, „some of them even start small businesses together. It's these stories that keep us going“.
After a 3 ½ hour 4WD ride including 45 minutes of driving within the Melangking Plantation we are finally approaching one of the four learning centres, located within the plantation.
The friendly, two-classroom school house is surrounded by a cluster of small houses, homes of the Indonesian workers. There is nothing else- no shops, cafés, or even a small community centre. What a bleak life, also for the teachers, who live right next to the school.
Inside the school we are welcomed by teachers, some parents and about 60 exited children. For about 90 minutes the children sing and dance for us, some of the brave ones even pose for snapshot with the orang putih.
„The parents are very engaged“, one of the four teachers tells us, „they make the costumes for carnivals and celebrations and assist in repair work“.
The children are beautiful- very well behaved, but playful and disarmingly innocent at the same time. They dream to become doctors, pilots, inventors, or football players.
When I see those cute little girls dancing on stage, I cannot get images of girlie bars out of my mind...
The following day we leave Semporna by boat. After a 30 minute ride we reach
the BCA project.
We look at the settlements of the Bajau Laut, sea nomades, who have been living in the coastal waters of Sabah, Sulawesi and Mindanao for centuries.
Even though indigenous, but without papers such as birth certificates, they are stateless and belong nowhere. Traditionally without education the children are increasingly prone to become misfits in society.
Branded as „garbage children“ they are found loitering around restaurants and shops.
Starting in January 2011, the small, one-classroom boat, which immediately reminded us of images of Noah's Ark, will commute between some of the larger clusters of houseboats and huts on stilts. The German Embassy's small scale fund is paying for the school boat's engine.
Did I write that we „visited“ these schools? You can't really visit poverty, misery and hope, instead you experience it and it gets under your skin.
We truly admire the work of all those involved, especially Torben and Rosalie Venning and all those dedicated teachers.
The small contribution of the German Embassy might not be more than a drop in the ocean, but it's money well spent.
