KOTA KINABALU: In its continuous commitment to champion education for the underprivileged, SP Setia Foundation is planning to extend its Setia Adoption Programme (SAP) to the rural areas in Sabah.
However, this will depend on the foundation’s financial affordability, said its chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
“We have always believed that no one should be deprived of education, not even those who are financially underprivileged. But despite our best intentions to help as many children as possible, we have to look at the foundation’s financial affordability.
“Therefore, our prime focus would be in Kota Kinabalu first, due to the Aeropod project, as we want to make sure that whatever we (SP Setia Bhd Group) benefit from our projects, part of it will be ploughed back to the community where we operate,” stressed Lee.
According to Lee, SP Setia Foundation had spent at least RM3.4 million for its adoption programme, including adopting 200 students from six selected schools in Sabah, or more specifically, in Kota Kinabalu.
The six schools are SRK Sacred Heart, SK Stella Maris, SK Tanjung Aru 1, SJKC Yick Nam Inanam, SJKC Chung Hwa, and SK Kepayan.
The selection of students, he said, was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, whereby students from a family with a household income lower than RM3,000 a month were selected.
Through the adoption programme, adopted primary school students were each given some RM1,000 in financial assistance a year throughout their primary education.
The amount, Lee said, is meant to assist students in their education expenses, including tuition fees, computer classes, school uniforms, stationery and daily food at their respective schools’ canteen.
Lee was speaking to reporters after launching the closing ceremony of the Sabah UPSR Motivation Camp for its 49 adopted students, at the Horizon Hotel here yesterday.
The camp, said Lee, was aimed at exposing its participants to sessions and activities which will help them to better prepare for the UPSR examination, as well as build their confidence and know how to answer examination questions better.
Lee also disclosed that the foundation had been carrying out its corporate social responsibility (CSR) work in Sabah since 2011. This included the Tinangkaanak Programme, where the foundation had allocated a RM150,000 grant for three early education centres in Kampung Kibunut, Togudon, and Kalampun.
The foundation had also funded RM118,000 for a community-based learning centre in Kampung Kalampun, which was also used as a handicraft display centre for the local communities there.
Present at the ceremony yesterday was the SP Setia Adoption Programme UPSR motivation camp committee vice chairman, Simon Lim.