Location : Kampung Ayun, Padawan District, Kuching Division, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Malaysia’s 13th General Election may be more than a year behind us but for a group of 7 West Malaysians, it was the reason why they made their very first visit to Sarawak and Kampung Ayun, a relocated Bidayuh village in Padawan. These 7, consisting of 3 couples and a lady, were Mei Er’s high school friends from Triang, Pahang.
I remember right after the Election with the result in favour of BN there were a lot of ‘hate comments’ on social media by our fellow West Malaysians on both Sabahans and Sarawakians, blaming the East Malaysians for their failure to ‘UBAH’or topple the current government. Instead of blaming us East Malaysians, this apolitical ‘Compassionate group of 7’ offered to help. That was when they started to write to Mei Er asking how they could contribute to the villagers of Sarawak knowing through FB that we did a lot of seva programs in the interior. We immediately suggested the setting up of a mini library for children and we picked Kampung Ayun as the first recipient of their charity. Throughout the year they would dispatch packages of books in batches to us. Finally, on 17June 2014 this group arrived with their 4 children and made their way to Ayun to officially hand over these books. 9 porters were engaged to help.
What was supposed to be a 90min hike turned into 3hrs. Crossing the 2 hanging bridges was the most challenging for these first timers and their kids and much time was taken up.
Upon arrival we immediately checked into the house of the newly elected headman Mr Taser. The group wasted no time in setting up the library, installing the rack, indexing and organising the books.
The second day morning was spent reading to the kids.
The ladies learning how to cook with bamboo
After which we cooled off at a nearby stream.
In the evening all the villagers led by Joary gathered at Taser’s house to get to know their new friends better.
Ended the night with handing over of cash donation from the ‘Compassionate 7’.
On behalf of Kampung Ayun and fellow Sarawakians we say ‘Terima kasih’ and may you guys be blessed with abundant compassion and your charity a shinning example to fellow Malaysians. Hope this album will help you remember your short stay here.
To see more photos, please click our FACEBOOK PAGE
This post on how a mini library has been set up at a Bidayuh village in Sarawak is very heartwarming and really illustrates efforts of “Reaching out to the hard to reach” which is the theme of an international conference on libraries, IFLA WLIC 2018 , that Malaysia has successfully bid to host it. As a member of the Publication Committee, we would like to use some of the photos posted her to showcase how volunteer efforts has contributed to reach the rural community. May we use these photos in our brochures and news bulletin. Due acknowledgement will be given and do let me know how we should acknowledge the source.
Hope to get a positive reply from you.
Molly Chuah.
Hi Molly, thanks for writing in and congratulations on the IFLA WLIC 2018 success. We actually have a newer and similiar project covering the same village plus another village nearby in October 2016. We have been uploading more urgent posts to our Facebook account with the same name as our website, that we have delayed posting it. But we shall definitely post it by March if you guys can wait. Those photos would be equally awesome. If you are in a hurry then just let us know which are the photos from this post that you would like to use so we can email you the higher resolution versions.
Thank you
Sim