Project Care in Borneo Post!

Village to harness solar energy for electricity 

MIRI: Unavailability of electricity will soon be a thing of the past for Lepo Tau Long Makaba residents in interior Baram once power is supplied to the village.

Members of Project Care are making efforts to provide the much needed utility through corporate sponsorships, partnerships and public donations.

They are to raise RM15,000 for the purchase and installation of solar panels for the village.

“The project is expected to be implemented in mid-October,” Project Care project manager Karen Kuek said yesterday.

According to her, once completed, the village which is better known as Long Makabar would become one of the first villages in the state to harness solar energy for electricity.

Long Makabar - a village of the Penan and Kenyah community in Sungai Silat - is close to the Kalimantan border.

Currently, there are about 200 residents in the village and they comprised mostly elders and primary school children.

The youth are said to be staying in various urban areas of the state and elsewhere in search of greener pastures.

Long Makabar is about eight hours by four-wheel drive vehicle from here through rough and treacherous logging tracks.

A recent visit by a consultation group consisting of Project Care, Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus and Mercy Malaysia, Miri Chapter to the remote village found that it had no electric power supply of whatever nature, either from the authorities or others.

When contacted by The Borneo Post, Kuek said electricity was only available at the primary school in the village - SK Long Makabar - and it was obtained via powered cable.

The team felt that lack of electricity would be a big hurdle for the development and progress of the village, hence the need to have the supply sooner or later.

After an extensive research to assess the ground situation during the visit, the team decided to choose Long Makabar as the site for the project.

Kuek said the village was rich in culture and resources especially human resource but unfortunately it had no electric power supply.

She believed lack of electricity could slow down the progress of the village, thus it might lag behind other villages in terms of development.

Meanwhile, Project Care has video documented its trip to the village and will use it in its efforts to gain corporate support and sponsorships to fulfill the commitment made to the village folks.

Kuek said with unstinted support from the university and Miri Mercy, the members of Project Care armed with the documentary and seasoned by the personal experience would reach out to the corporate and the public, through various campaigns that would run until mid-October.

“In addition to that we will be running a month-long photo exhibition on Long Makabar at Pustaka Miri, besides fund-raising campaigns in shopping complexes,” said Wong Ming Yi who is in-charge of marketing for Project Care.

This was to raise awareness while forging corporate partnerships with larger organisations to sponsor their initiative, she added.

“This isn’t about donation or charity but about the future of Long Makabar. So please help us to help this village,” she said.

Project Care is a student-run-leadership-oriented rural community project consisting of eight leadership students, and an offshoot of John Curtin Leadership Academy from Curtin University of Technology that aims to improve remote rural living conditions.

To contribute, the public may call Kuek at 013-8168827 or visit Project Care website at http://groups/google.com/groups/projectcarejcla/web/project-care.