Muhammad Nazmi in an animal costume interacting with his students at a classroom in SK Long Sukang, Lawas.
Though dark skies loomed over Malaysia in recent years with Covid-19, there was still some light amid the seeming darkness.
For Mukmin Nantang, 28, the plight of stateless children in Sabah could be addressed in ways that did not necessarily entail the use of fancy equipment. All he needed were pencils and A4 paper.
The Tawau-born lad felt aggrieved that these children were denied their rights to education just because they lacked documentation. They were often seen selling snacks by the roadside at night to help their families earn money.
“Because of this, my friend and I opened up a class for them while they were working. We would teach them the basics of reading and writing just by using a pencil and a sheet of paper,” he said.
A volunteer teacher teaching stateless children at Sekolah Pemulihan Gam in Semporna
What started as a roadside class became an established education platform when Mukmin set up Sekolah Alternatif together with his friends through an NGO called Borneo Komrad to provide various support, especially in education, for stateless children in Tuaran, Tawau and Semporna.
Mukmin said he always reminds his fellow volunteers not to treat it as a job, but as a lifelong fight for the stateless children.
Today, they have four such schools in Sabah with about 150 students, each with a steady team of volunteer teachers.
Mukmin’s fight didn’t stop there as he also co-founded a “safe space” for stateless children who fell into glue-sniffing addiction in the destitute water villages of Semporna, a facility he named Sekolah Pemulihan Gam (SPG).
SPG is fronted by his students from Sekolah Alternatif for children from impoverished families who resorted to glue sniffing as a form of escapism for a few hours to suppress their feelings of hunger.
At present, SPG has about 20 stateless children aged between seven to 15, where they learn basic literacy, hygiene and even music and theatre.
Flood rescue heroes
Over in Selangor, although the darkness of the night limited Aris Dzulkifli’s vision to about a metre ahead, that didn’t stop his small team from rescuing over 100 residents in Taman Sri Muda, Klang, during the December 2021 floods.
With only one torchlight and a personal watercraft (PWC), Aris, who is chief executive officer of watersport operator Flyboard Malaysia, and his two employees Daniel Barker and Deeno Shah took on water as deep as four metres to rescue flood victims.
Once he entered the flooded area, he noted that there were many 4x4 vehicles and boatmen around, but they weren’t able to get to the deep areas because they had to row or paddle manually.
“Since the boats could only save people at the shallow end, we went to the deep areas to begin our rescue mission. We had to pass by two roundabouts and a school to get there. That was our only guide,” he said.
People seen waiting at a dry area as 4x4 vehicles provide light during floods in Taman Sri Muda, Klang.
Since his PWC could only carry one passenger at a time, he decided to tow a boat in order to transport about six people at one time.
“It was more emotionally tiring than physically tiring as I watched everyone just waiting to be helped.
“Some people were so desperate to rescue their family members that they offered us money, but we refused as we were sincerely helping them. So we asked for their locations to see what we could do,” he said.
Aris’ PWC also got stuck on top of submerged lorries several times.
“I had to jump into the water to dislodge my PWC. Even though I’m a trained swimmer due to the nature of my job, it’s still quite dangerous, especially without a life jacket,” he recalled.
There were hundreds of volunteers on standby to assist, he said, adding that once they ferried the victims to a dry area, others would take over and provide lighting, comfort and food, while Aris would turn back to the flooded area to rescue more people.
“I really felt the Malaysian spirit. There were people from all walks of life and we didn’t even know each other’s names, but we united to help those in need,” he said.
Going the extra mile to teach
Golden hearts are aplenty in Sarawak. In Lawas’ SK Long Sukang, Muhammad Nazmi Rosli decided to initiate a homework-on-delivery (HOD) initiative for his students.
“I was the only teacher left in Lawas when the movement control order was announced.
“At that time, we were clueless because there was no Internet access and everyone was trying to grasp online learning, so there was no help from anyone,” he said.
Muhammad Nazmi, 29, said to ensure that education remained accessible to his students, he came up with HOD after getting approval from many parties, including the school headmaster, village chief and health and education officers.
The weekly delivery took two days as the villages could only be reached by four-wheel drive vehicles, with the nearest being three to four hours from Lawas town.
Some students had trouble understanding the homework on their own, so Muhammad Nazmi and a few other teachers added a new initiative called “ruai (verandah) classroom” in the village three to four times a week for the 58 students in Long Sukang.
“This was not voluntary work for me because it is my duty as a teacher to provide education for my kids,” he said.
Muhammad Nazmi didn’t expect what he described as a small contribution to become a big-scale project when other teachers also adopted his method of using fishermen’s boats and 4x4 vehicles.
“My headmaster told me that one teacher in Miri even waited at the airport to ask passengers boarding a flight to Limbang to pass homework to a student who was stuck there,” he said.
The Teddy Bear Doctor
In Kuala Lumpur, a medical practitioner fondly known as the Teddy Bear Doctor brought a ray of hope to underprivileged communities unable to afford proper medical treatment.
Dr Madhusudhan Shanmugam, 40, earned his moniker from his younger patients because he would give them teddy bears during his visits, having started his own mobile clinic in 2015 where he treats the homeless in Kuala Lumpur after his work hours.
Following the movement control order, he frequented homeless transit centres in Kuala Lumpur to provide consultation and medical care such as blood pressure and sugar level checks, and to dispense medicine.
Dr Madhusudhan posing with a patient at his mobile clinic in Kuala Lumpur.
He and his team of volunteers also delivered all kinds of help, including monetary aid and food, adding that their next plan is to visit Orang Asli communities to provide medical help.
He said he was pleased to see so many Malaysians volunteering and helping others.
“During the (Taman) Sri Muda floods (in December 2021) where we helped give medical aid, medical donations from the public kept piling up. Hundreds of RTK-Ag test kits were also given out.
“The whole place was run by volunteers. When volunteering, we always remind ourselves that we are colour blind,” he said.
“Despite our race or background, we are just there together to help others as Malaysians.”
