Aussie, Sabah students help build houses

KOTA KINABALU: A joint effort by Tawau and Australian students helped to build houses for three families in Sabah. The group comprising 17 students from Tawau and 15 from Australia carried out the task from July 5 to 10 this year taking over from another group of French student volunteers.

The previous group was from the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel International School who finished their part on June 30. The Australians from the University of New South Wales and students from the Tawau Vision Secondary School were volunteers for the Habitat for Humanity Kota Kinabalu to help build homes for people.

During the five-day project, the students worked together to build a concrete house in Kg. Nosoob in Penampang and Kg. Beringgis in Papar. The Tawau volunteers only took on the third project which was a stilt house in Kg. Tuavon, Penampang.

Leonard Rowe, 23, the Australian volunteers’ team leader, said the work provided an excellent opportunity for him to experience a different culture and lifestyle and to integrate with the locals. Leonard, who has worked in similar projects in Cambodia, Philippines and Mongolia, said there was a need to build better houses in Sabah.

“Everyone should have a decent place to live in. When people have proper houses, it will create more productivity in the country. I think the problem of poor housing is more prevalent in the outskirts compared to cities.”

Lisa Huang, 22, said the work provided a good opportunity to tell other people about the good work done by Habitat for Humanity, adding there was a lack of proper facilities for building houses here.

Dane Ricketts, 22, who has done voluntary work for the Habitat Home in the Philippines, said he would love to come back to Sabah one day to see the “fruits of his labour.”

Emy Lun, 21, said: “It’s rewarding to be able to make a difference in people’s lives and to work with local volunteers. With this project I have the chance to give something back to the community.”

Dane said none of the volunteers were skilled house builders as many of them are studying subjects entirely unrelated to house building. He and Emy, for example, study commerce while Lisa is a student in psychology and Leonard is studying mining and civil engineering.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Andrew Philip from the Tawau Vision Secondary School who is the Kg. Beringgis team leader said he learned a lot while undertaking the recent projects.

“It was hard work physically but through these projects I learned a lot of new skills such as mixing cement. I’m also more aware of the plight of other Sabahans living in other districts and hopefully we can use this as baseline to help others in future,” he said.

Melvin Joshua, 16, said: “The projects teach you how to build houses and teach you how to be disciplined in terms of teamwork and taking instructions from your team leaders. The work also gives you an opportunity to build relationships with other people, with the Australian volunteers.”

The boys said they would be happy to return for more projects in the future. The Australian volunteers will be leaving Sabah on Tuesday while the Tawau students left for home last Saturday.

The Kg. Nosoob house is nearing completion while the houses in Kg. Beringgis and Kg. Tuavon are about 80 and 70 per cent completed.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-government organisation that seeks to eliminate housing poverty worldwide. The organisation works with families in need from all backgrounds, ethnic groups and religions to build decent homes in partner communities.