KOTA KINABALU: For over 10 years, the hostel deep in Sabah’s interior Paitan district, has been housing children from underprivileged families living far from school.
The St. Nicholas’ hostel in Kg Sulit, under the care of nuns from the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (FSIC), has helped shelter and feed hundreds of students in the last decade, and has gone through floods and survived due to public funding.
But fire from candles tore through the ‘off-grid’ building and damaged everything in it around 3am on Apr 5.
The 13-year-old girls who stayed back for church matters managed to get out in time, said one of the caretakers, Sister Dorothy Amalia Laudi.
She said firefighters required hours to arrive as the nearest station was three hours away.
She said villagers who were awakened by the screams of the girls calling for help during the blaze, tried their best to put out the flames using pails of water but the fire spread too fast due to the dry season.
“Actually, this semi-concrete double-storey hostel that can house up to 80 students was built by Sabah Credit more than 10 years ago,” she said when contacted.
Sister Dorothy said during that time, children wanting to go to school had to walk hours and some even days to arrive and so, the hostel was proposed and then built.
Soon, government hostels were provided but not all the children lived there as their families preferred the church hostel despite it still having no power supply installed, just like most of the rest of the village in Kg Sulit.
“Currently, we have six girls with us, but after the fire, they cannot come back because their school uniforms and essentials have been burnt down,” she said.
The two girls who are now living with some families following the fire also have to skip classes as they do not have anything but the clothes on their backs, she said.
“These children need clothes and school supplies, and we need to rebuild the hostel but there is not much we can give, so we hope there will be kind and generous individuals who can help us rebuild,” she said.
Sister Dorothy said so far, they have only received around RM5,000 from family, friends, the community and strangers who learned about their plight on social media.
“Datuk James Ratib (Sugut assemblyman) came by the other day and gave us RM1,000. We are very grateful for every cent received, but to rebuild the hostel, we need around half a million Ringgit,” she said.
“Please help us to continue giving hope and a safe home for children here in Paitan,” she pleaded.
Those who wish to help can contact Sister Dorothy at 0 16-803 0237 for more information.
