8 March 2010

Students win the hearts of Orang Asli

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A group of 26 students from the School of Computer Technology at Sunway University College donated 17 units of computers to an Orang Asli community in Kampung Jelintuh, Perak. The donations were made in two separate visits over 8 months, during which the students installed the computers at the “Balai Rakyat” at the village and provided some basic lessons to the children and adults there.


Receiving the computers was the Penghulu, Ba Ayyeh. Mr. Johnny Savarimuthu, the advisor of the community service project initially, who attended the first trip with the students sometime in the middle of last year, said “This is a milestone event for the Orang Asli community in Malaysia as it is the first time that a donation of computers has been made to them”. Mr. Christopher Ong the current advisor of the project added “We will continue to work with and support the Orang Asli in order to provide more opportunities and access to the latest technologies for them”.


Student Hasan-Ul-Mokaddes from Bangladesh said “This is a truly remarkable and new experience for me and it gave me an insight into the orang asli community. I was touched by their hospitality and their eagerness to learn about computers. His coursemate, Joseph A/L Gangadaran shared “There are still a lot of people in Malaysia that have missed out on technology and I am really glad me and my classmates had a chance to help. Through this project, we learnt to work as a team and it was a great learning experience too”.


This community service project is part of the requirement for the students’ completion of their diploma course. The computers were a donation by the School of Computer Technology. The costs of travelling and accessories for the installation were covered by a fund raising lunch organised by the students. The students have also raised additional funds through a recent Tea and Fashion Show for computer classes for the Orang Asli which will be provided by the Shalom Community Centre in Gopeng.