Collecting kangkung (water spinach) by the drains or digging up tapioca tubers from the ground might not be part of most people's childhoods - but for Zee Shazila, it was a way of life. Growing up in a large family of seven siblings in Menggatal, Sabah, she recalls a time when her parents struggled to put food on the table, and these simple acts helped them get by.
"It was during the financial crisis in the late 1990s when my stepfather lost his job as a lorry driver. My mother was a homemaker, and sewing was her only skill," says Zee, 38, during a recent Zoom interview from Kampung Keliangau in Menggatal, a district about 15km from Kota Kinabalu.
