00:00 [Music]
00:05 Hi there, my name is Jimmy Lee.
00:07 I'm from Starfish Malaysia Foundation.
00:10 We are the winner of the Star Golden Heart Awards 2023.
00:15 Jimmy Lee is a 70-year-old Sarawakian
00:18 who used to run a manufacturing business in Sydney, Australia.
00:23 He said his story with the Starfish Malaysia Foundation started
00:26 after he sold his business and visited Kota Marudu, Sabah in 2008.
00:32 One of the ones that we saw was when we visited some of the rural kampung.
00:38 Many hours drive from Kota Kinabalu up the hills.
00:43 And after visiting, on the way back, it was raining a bit.
00:48 And then there were these children walking home,
00:51 still in school uniform, primary school uniform.
00:54 I was asking them, "Why are they still walking home?"
00:57 At that time, it was like 3, 4 o'clock.
00:59 "Oh," I said, "Oh, they're actually still walking home
01:02 because the school is two or three hours walk away."
01:05 And it was raining and they were all wet.
01:07 So I said, "In that case, they wouldn't have lunch yet, haven't makan yet."
01:13 So they said, "Yeah, no, they won't have makan yet."
01:16 So that actually started me thinking,
01:19 "Well, if this is tough, how can we help to make it better for them?"
01:25 So I said, "What if we build a hostel next to the school?
01:29 Would they come and stay?"
01:30 So we explored.
01:31 And we also found out from this kampung,
01:33 90% of the children there don't even finish primary six.
01:39 And I said, "Well, how long has this been happening?"
01:41 "Oh, it has been happening for the last 50, 60, 70 years, always like that."
01:45 So if we do nothing, then it will continue for the next 50 years.
01:50 Two years later, the foundation was registered with a vision to educate,
01:55 elevate and empower marginalized communities in Sabah and Sarawak.
02:00 Since then, Starfish has been building and managing hostels
02:04 within the vicinity of nearby schools
02:06 so that the children have access to education.
02:10 Now we have five hostels running.
02:12 The first one I have mentioned is in Kampung Telantan,
02:15 Hostel Jasmine Telantan.
02:17 And this is a primary school hostel.
02:19 We have actually two primary school hostels.
02:21 The other one is Hostel Lily Mangkapon,
02:24 which is near the tip of Borneo,
02:26 the other tip, the Pitas tip.
02:28 And we have three other secondary school hostels.
02:31 One is Hostel Merigo, Solipodon,
02:34 which is halfway between Kota Marudu and Pitas.
02:38 And then we have two other secondary school hostels.
02:40 One is in Kudat, Hostel Rose Kudat.
02:43 And then the last one, the fifth one is Hostel Sunflower Sekuati.
02:48 Jimmy said that one of the challenges was convincing the parents
02:52 to let their children stay in the hostels.
02:54 At first it was quite hard because they were suspicious.
02:59 Why do you want to, you know, you want to make them work?
03:02 You, from where?
03:03 Not even from Sabah, you come and want to help
03:07 and then some more stay there, you know, feed the children,
03:11 take them to school, make sure they study,
03:13 make sure they mandi, everything, looking after them.
03:17 He said, "No, no, we just want to help to make sure that they can,
03:20 you know, go to school."
03:21 Quite a lot of success story, but there's one particular one
03:24 because it involved a boy that his name is Abron.
03:28 He came to our first hostel, Hostel Jasmine Telangtan.
03:32 He started enrolling and he's primary three.
03:35 So he was 10 years old.
03:36 But he was very small size, very malnutrished.
03:39 We found out that his attendance was about 35%
03:43 average school attendance.
03:45 So he's in former class of 37 students
03:49 and his position is number 37.
03:51 So he's the bottom of the class.
03:52 So when you look at him in the natural eyes,
03:55 not much help we can do with this one,
03:57 but to cut the long story short.
03:58 So when he started staying at our hostel,
04:01 his attendance go from 35% to 100%
04:05 because the hostel is literally a stone's throw away from the school.
04:09 So he doesn't miss school.
04:10 So, but just by that, his position improved.
04:15 By the time he finished primary six,
04:17 the last prize giving assembly,
04:20 he received an award from the headmaster
04:23 as the most improved student in the whole school.
04:27 And he also loved music, loved to sing,
04:29 and he has actually became the conductor
04:32 for the whole school choir.
04:34 Apart from improving the literacy level,
04:36 the foundation also boosts the community's income
04:39 through agriculture.
04:41 Jimmy added that Starfish plans to expand its agriculture efforts
04:45 to include commercial plantation and fish farming.
04:48 The hardest part, helping the rural community
04:52 is helping them to market the product.
04:54 If they plant 100 bananas,
04:56 who are they going to sell to?
04:57 They can't. It's so far away.
04:59 They don't have cars.
05:00 They don't have motorbikes.
05:02 How to bring 100 bunch of bananas to town?
05:04 So all these things, we have to help them there.
05:07 Jimmy considered that their mission is no easy task.
05:11 On challenging days, he too has contemplated giving up.
05:15 However, witnessing the children's growth and progress
05:18 motivates him and his team to persevere.
05:21 When we first started, we got students that did the SPM result,
05:29 2As, 3As.
05:31 If we got 4As in the SPM result, we were very happy already.
05:35 This year, in June, we got 10 SPM students.
05:38 2 got 8As, 1 got 8As and 1B+.
05:42 So almost 9As, you know.
05:44 Wow, we were over the moon.
05:46 All of them passed. No one failed in any subject.
05:48 Things like that keep us going.
05:50 We are the best!
05:52 (CHEERING)
05:55 (MUSIC ENDS)
05:57 (MUSIC ENDS)
05:59 (MUSIC ENDS)
06:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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