British NGO brings light into lives of Kg Wasai villagers

KOTA KINABALU: The dark ages are over for Kampung Wasai, Tuaran.

Villagers may now look forward to brighter days ahead of them, especially the 48 school-going children (Primary 1-6), who are able to do their homework when night falls, now that the village has finally got power supply.

This is thanks to London-based Land Rover Academy of United Kingdom, which has specifically chosen Kg Wasai, about 100km from here, for charity project under its Challenge Worldwide Programme for the poor and needy.

Kampung Wasai’s 300 villagers, who live in 29 houses, have had to live with poor basic amenities, and is connected to the outside world by a dusty and bumpy stretch of road. Through the assistance of a local destination company, Pacific World Destination East Sdn Bhd, the village was chosen for the project based on its logistics and deserving needy folks.

Let There Be Light…. And there was light for the entire village after the completion of the Hydro-Turbine electricity supply project, whose idea and concept of building the project came from local mechanic in Hillary Francis with assistance from village folks (young and old) on a gotong royong basis.

Local Event Coordinator Anna Marie Chai and Hillary were assigned to carry out logistics and preparations, which took them three months to finish the project in time for the arrival of 26 Land Rover Academy apprentices from London on April 23, led by its Manager/Technical Chief Dr. Adrian Birch and Lara Bryan.

The English team stayed with the villagers for three days, and carried out the final touches of the project, such as installing power sockets, laying main high pressure water pipes and power poles, and fixing cables to all the 29 houses, which are spread about 100-200 metres away from the power house, with some located further up on steep hill slopes.

With sheer determination, commitment, hard work, team spirit, vision and strong will power, the 26 apprentices worked throughout the days under the hot sun to see the villagers get their electricity supply.

After working day and night, the whole team, along with Adrian, Lara, Anna, Hillary, and the villagers eventually welcomed the lights into their respective homes on April 24 with the Hydro-Turbine (10KVA) working perfectly.

Smiles lit up the faces of the villagers, who had hitherto had to use kerosene lamps and candles at night for about three years.

An elated Village Head Yatiun Tonggulu said that earlier, they had had some power supply through a diesel generator set supplied by the government, though it was not enough to meet the villagers’ needs—but even that disappeared when the machine broke down after a year’s usage.

“I was at a loss for words when we saw the lights in our homes—on behalf of my village, I want to thank Land Rover Academy for having carried out such a noble charity project for us,” he said.

“All of us are speechless: we are thankful and appreciate such a wonderful gesture, especially coming from an NGO from overseas.”

“Saya tidak tahu macam mana nak cakap, hanya minta ribuan terima kasih kepada mereka yang sanggup turun ke-kampung ini untuk membantu kami di sini, (I don’t know how to say this… only thank you very much to all those involved who sacrificed to come to our kampung to help us),” he said.

In an interview Adrian, who is responsible for technical training for qualified technicians and apprentices for Land Rover, Aston Martin and Jaguar cars said that this sort of project is part of their corporate, training, advanced development and self-motivating programme for their final year students.

He added that along with London-based Giraffe Events Ltd, for which Lara Bryan is the Managing Director, Land Rover Academy had carried out similar charity projects for the poor and needy in Zambia, Kenya, the Amazon, Peru, Tanzania, Ecuador and now Borneo.

In fact this Hydro-Turbine electricity plant was their first such undertaking—they had previously built schools, classrooms, community halls, roads, bridges, medical centres and other basic amenities for the needy in third world countries.

“All our technicians and apprentices were required to raise a minimum of 250 pounds sterling (RM1,600) in order to be part of the team, but all of them did remarkably well, collecting far beyond the minimum target, raising approximately 12,600 pounds (RM60,000) for this project,” he said.

“They individually canvassed for money and other sponsorships, which came from individuals, family members, friends, various community/sporting organisations and business associates in rising their respective sum months before we decide on what to do and where.”

The apprenticeship is a three-year paid technical training and employment scheme for youth. The programme is aimed at those in the 16-24 age group; and graduates go on to become qualified technicians, mechanics, service advisors etc.

The programme is specifically designed to stretch and test employees to their limits whilst benefiting deserving local poor communities and rewarding the employees with pride for their role in a good cause.

The result is a chance to discover a new country and environment in as authentic a way as possible, learning the way of life, culture and getting an insight of poor communities’ hardships (absolutely not a holiday or tourist experience).

There are three core fundamental challenges: physical, community and cultural (ideally environmental and technical), as the programme is to be achieved within 7 or 8 days, that is a normal week and weekends so not too much time out of the workplace.

Adrian and Lara made their initial site visit to Kampung Wasai in November last year after they selected Wasai from among several proposals, and in their second visit few months ago, decided to build the hydroelectric plant from the villagers’ request.

Lara said that her UK-based management is specialising in overseas corporate training and development events. The Challenge Worldwide programme was originally designed and created by her for Land Rover four years ago to offer an alternative way to prepare their apprentices for life, not just for their career.

It has attracted widespread media and corporate interest with other Blue Chip apprenticeship programmes interested in following the Land Rover Challenge model as a development tool for their employees.

British Telecom has already followed Land Rover pioneering spirit and taken a group to Africa; Challenge Tanzania was also focused of a documentary that was screened on the community channel, a satellite TV show in the UK.

She pointed out that everyone who has been involved in the Challenge Programme, like the Challenge Borneo, has been inspired to put in 110 percent and all apprentices have reaffirmed after each trip that they have had an experience of a lifetime that they will never forget.

Employers too have noted the difference in their returning employees in terms of maturity, motivation and a greater appreciation for things they used to take for granted – all in all, training for life, not just a career.

“When we came here and met with the people, we realised that all they dream of is to have lights in their houses and I am very happy that the whole project was a real success—we are happy and the villagers are happy too,” she said.

“We came and we did it of course with the help of locals and the villagers themselves, but what is important is that all of us truly felt the deserving accomplishment deep inside us and will surely cherish all our experiences in the village, their culture and tradition.”

Most of the apprentices when met, said felt the same—they began without any idea of where Borneo or Sabah was, and found themselves doing the sort of hard work, such as having to build their own bathrooms and toilets, that they never do back home.

One 20-year-old, David Williams, said that he feels good after all what he and his team mates had contributed for the betterment of the villagers’ livelihood especially the children at school.

“No regrets at all—in fact I am enjoying it, though I’m not used to working in such harsh conditions, I can return and share my fond memories and experience with family members and friends,” he said.

It is a sentiment that any of the apprentices and participants can espouse with pride.