KOTA KINABALU: A recent trip to a remote village in Sabah has inspired one lass from Kuala Lumpur to help the villagers there live a better life.
Suganya Subramaniam, 22, said she did not enjoy the journey to Kampung Tudan when she first travelled to the hamlet in October last year.
“Other people might not want to travel on the same rocky road again after their first trip because of its terrible condition.
“But when the villagers told me that they have no money to treat their sick children, it made me more determined to carry out a project to help improve their livelihoods,” said the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student during a recent press conference at Sabah Tourism Board’s office here.
Suganya, a second-year food science student, is part of the UMS team that won the national-level Enactus competition held in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Enactus, which operates in 36 countries, is a community of student, academic and business leaders using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a more sustainable world.
The UMS students will be representing Malaysia to compete in the Enactus World Cup competition in London in September.
She and her team visited village five times to teach the locals how to cultivate mulberry, besides processing plant leaves into tea, food and cosmetic products.
To date, 65 out of about 700 villagers have joined the project.
Village head Golonius Gibin, 53, said of the village’s young residents were keen to be part of the project.
“We are thankful to UMS for getting us involved in the project, which I believe will help our people, especially the jobless youngsters, earn extra money.
“Currently, the size of our mulberry plantation is about two acres (0.81 hectare) of and we expect to expand it by another 10 acres (4 hectares),” he said.
The village, which is about 50 kilometres from here, has some 1,500 trees that are used to produce tea, drinks and lotions.
Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, during the press conference, said the board will promote and market the “Tudan Mulberry” products via its subsidiary Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd.
Joniston also said the cultivation of mulberry could also turn the village into a tourist destination.