Lee (back row, middle) with the 25 children who were rewarded with the Setia Adoption Programme.
KOTA KINABALU: At its inaugural Excellence Awards ceremony on Saturday, SP Setia Foundation recognised and rewarded 25 children under its Setia Adoption Programme (SAP) for Sabah.
This is the first year that the foundation has organized such an event in Kota Kinabalu, to give out awards to its adopted students in due recognition of their excellent results in the 2013 UPSR examinations.
“Since the launch of the Setia Adoption Programme in 2000, the foundation has spent approximately RM26.6 million to carry out the adoption programmes,” said chairman of SP Setia Foundation, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
The SAP was founded to fund the educational needs of underprivileged students nationwide in primary schools. In 2004, the programme was extended to secondary school students and in 2009 it expanded to include tertiary and bachelor’s degree students.
In 2012, the foundation launched the Setia Adoption Programme in Sabah to provide educational aid to 200 underprivileged primary school students from six schools in Kota Kinabalu.
The yearly allocations for primary, secondary, tertiary and bachelor’s degree students are between RM1,000 up to RM1,100, RM1,000 to RM1,600 and RM6,250 to RM14,000 respectively.
To date, 14 students under the SAP have moved on to tertiary education. Two have graduated from local public universities and have joined the work force.
During the event, Lee was accompanied by Chief Executive Officer of SP Setia Foundation, Captain Liew Siong Sing, and Headmaster of SJK(C) Chung Hwa Kota Kinabalu, Datuk Eng Thiam Leong.
At this year’s award ceremony, three Setia adopted children were rewarded in the excellence awards category for obtaining all As in the recent UPSR examinations, three children were rewarded in the Outstanding Award Category and 19 children were recognised in the Most Improved Award Category.
Each child received and English-Malay dictionary and a motivational book titled “Secrets of Successful Teens” along with cash prizes worth RMN200, RM150 and RM100 respectively according to the categories.
“Throughout these twelve years, 2,207 students were recognised at this meaningful ceremony,” said Lee, adding that the foundation not only promotes academic excellence but hopes that each Setia Adopted Child develops into a responsible model citizen.
“Although children receive formal education in school, parents still play an important role in their children’s success as most of students’ time are spent at home. With this in mind, the foundation organizes a bi-annual dialogue with parents to motivate them into taking an active interest in their children’s studies,” Lee highlighted.
To acknowledge the contribution and support of the teachers and schools in making the SAP a success over the years, four teachers were given the Teachers Awards. Meanwhile, SJK(C) Chung Hwa Kota Kinabalu was awarded Best School Category together with a reward of RM5,000.
The SAP started with only 79 students from three primary schools in Klang Valley. Today, this has rapidly expanded to include 2,600 primary pupils and 400 secondary students of various races from 129 schools in eight states, namely, Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Pahang and Sabah.