Risky route: Pupils in Nabawan ‘zip-line’ to school

KOTA KINABALU: Crossing a huge river on a small bamboo raft or zip-lining to get to the other side might sound fun for anyone who loves adventure.

However, pupils in Sabah’s interior Nabawan district are forced to perform these stunts just to get to school.

It is unclear how long they have been living this way, but videos of these students have surfaced online.

These videos are believed to be recorded in two different locations but in the same district.

Videos showing children and adults crossing the river either on a bamboo raft or via a locally-made zip-line have gone viral.

In some of the video recordings, the children could be seen smiling while some could be heard laughing.

“For them, this might be fun. They might not know what danger is (there) but how much longer do they have to endure these types of hardships,” said a regular volunteer and humanitarian activist, Dayang Hayati Fernandez on her Facebook page.

She said in the past, these videos were taken in other countries such as China, where children who lived far in the forest had to climb steep hills or cling on to a rope to cross rivers, just to get to their next destination.

“But today, I have been fed with videos showing exactly the same thing which is happening in my own home country,” she said.

Hayati called upon the people to unite and bring such matters and problems to the authorities and to push for immediate action to be taken.

Efforts are being made to get a response from Pensiangan MP Arthur Kurup, state Education Department director Datuk Mistirine Radin and other relevant authorities.