1. Iskul gives the gift of literacy to the stateless children of Pulau Omadal
- 50 children received basic literacy from August 2015 to 2019, on weekend classes with snacks.
- 18 children graduated with basic literacy skills from Iskul in 2020 and could speak simple Bahasa Malaysia.
- 30 students received basic literacy from 2020 to Dec 2021, 5 days a week classes with a simple meal.
- 33 students receive basic literacy from Jan 2022 to now. They learn to read, write and count. All of them can follow simple instructions in Bahasa Malaysia, while 10 can converse fluently.
2. Iskul students and youth gain confidence in their abilities and spread their knowledge to their families and community
- 33 children have improved self-esteem through various arts and performing activities such as dancing, acting, singing, playing musical instruments and “wayang kulit” performing.
- 3 number of Iskul graduates have gone on to become Mastal Arikik and are responsible for teaching the younger students.
- 33 children (students) participate in Iskul’s health campaign to bring health messages to their community in their Bajau language. Their first arts-inspired health production is about the Covid-19 and its prevention – 2022
- 30 student became “health ambassador” to bring hygiene practices to their homes (affecting 50 people from 24 households) – February 2022
3. Students no longer go to classes hungry and can fully concentrate on their lessons
- 45 children and adolescents received 1 nutritious meal for 5 days a week from July 2020 to December 2021
- 45 children and adolescents receive 2 nutritious meals (breakfast and lunch) from January 2022 to December 2023.
4. Community’s exposure to modern medication increased and health conditions became better
- 20 pregnant and nursing mothers received education about the importance of nutrition to their unborn child and infant. They also received Obimin or Zincofer supplements for 9 months in 2021. After the program 14 women indicated that they would like to continue receiving the supplement.
- 30 children (not Iskul’s student) received multivitamins for nine months in 2021.
- 120 households received water tanks to store rainwater from Iskul. This improved their current access to water. They could use the extra water for daily hygiene and save money from buying more water.
- Iskul students and the community members have received first aid and medications from the Iskul team since April 2020. On average, at least one person come to Iskul for medical help bi-weekly. We had just recently recorded the cases. From July to August 2022, we have administered medications at least 72 times (graph below). The majority of them have skin problems such as (scabies and ringworm).
5. The importance and credibility of our work has been recognised by national and international environmental and social foundations
- Yayasan Hasanah Special Grant 2020
- Institute of Statelessness (ISI)’s Covid-19 Emergency Statelessness Fund
- Yayasan Hasanah Special Grant 2021 – 2.0
- UNDP Small Grant Projects’ Covid-19 Support to Territories and Areas Conserved By Indigenous People And Fishing Communities (ICCAs) In Malaysia
- Institute of Statelessness (ISI)’s Education Fund
6. 221 Omadal households received food aid and Covid-19 health and vaccination
information in our effort to help flatten the Covid-19 graph in Semporna
- 150 households in Omadal received a food basket worth RM100 each and a carton of Ice Mountain drinking water in April 2020 during the MCO (RM10,630.60).
- 167 stateless households and 54 Malaysian households in Omadal received 5 food baskets worth RM70-RM100 each and 5 cartons of drinking water from October to December 2020 (total spent RM65,141).
- 186 people underwent Covid-19 screening with Semporna District Health Office (PKD) because of our food baskets.
- Iskul helped KKM to track 14 covid positive patients in Omadal, and provided them with food, vitamins and masks for 4 times.
- Encouraged and persuaded 1 positive stateless resident to quarantine in the Bubul Ria quarantine centre.
- The week we applied for the YH HRF (20 October), Semporna had the second highest Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, 969 cases out of 8,431 total active cases in Malaysia. It was about 11% of the total cases in Malaysia. By the time we finished distributing all food baskets in mid-December, Semporna only recorded 56 active cases. We are glad we played a role in contributing to the government’s efforts in flattening the Covid-19 cases in Sabah and Malaysia.
- 10 of Iskul students presented a wayang kulit entitled “Omadal fights Corona” in their Bajau language to the wider community in Omadal. Some community members understand the danger of Covid-19 and ways to overcome it. Our students learned a different way of expression and performing arts through the wayang kulit performance. This exposure also increased their self-confidence.
- 19 of our students’ parents attended information sessions about the importance of Covid-19 vaccination. They learned about the procedure of taking vaccination. Iskul also dispelled some misconceptions they heard about Covid-19 vaccination such as not being able to eat fish, shower or do heavy work for 3 days. We asked them to spread the information and encourage their friends and family to take the Covid-19 vaccination.
- We guided 6 stateless youth (who are Iskul’s staff) to receive Covid-19 vaccination when PKD arranged for the vaccination in Omadal. On the same day, approximately 400 people received their Covid-19 vaccination in Omadal.
7. 631 kgs waste removed from Omadal and its water from January – May 2022
- 33 households in Omadal participated in Iskul’s Pilot Waste Management Project. They learn to discard plastic waste properly.
- 186kg of plastic waste saved from being thrown into the sea from January to May 2020. It was brought out to the dumping site in Semporna by the Iskul team. The waste was from our waste management project participants.
- Insight into plastic waste thrown into the sea: An average of 5.6kg plastic is produced by every stateless household in Omadal monthly.
- We removed 260kg of waste from the sea area in Omadal during low tide in a community “gotong-royong” with the stateless community on 21-22 March 2022.
- We removed 185kg of waste from Omadal island in a community “gotong-royong” with the local Malaysian residents in Omadal and our students, on 1 April 2022.
8. 24 stateless and Malaysian youth in Omadal empowered through teaching trainings
and experiences, organising Iskul’s community social development projects and media advocacy training.
Youth Empowerment
- 3 (stateless) students graduated and trained to be Mastal Arikik in Iskul. They also learn about ways to organise their community through various Iskul’s programmes such as Covid-19 relief, Community Water Project, Supplement Program and more.
- 1 stateless youth became Iskul’s MA when one of our current MA went on maternity leave in March 2022.
- 10 Malaysian children and youth received training and become Mastal Arikik. They learned how to teach through Teaching Camps and became more confident through teaching the stateless children.
- 2 Malaysian Mastal Arikik became Iskul’s Field Coordinator at different times.
- 10 youths (5 stateless and 5 Malaysian) learn video production and filmmaking skills. They have produced a total of 10 videos under the mentorship of 2 Iskul staff since February. One video related to the health campaign to “Stop Sniffing Glue” went viral on Iskul’s Facebook and YouTube. We are officially a YouTube Partner. This means that our youth can monetise their video content via Iskul’s YouTube.