SIBU, April 13: Seven blocks of buildings belonging to SMK Sacred Heart were damaged during the recent freak storm.
The school today received RM30,000 from Bukit Assek assemblyman Joseph Chieng for repairs.
Speaking to reporters after presenting the contribution, Chieng said some of the blocks suffered serious damage apart from having roofing blown away by the wind.
“I understand that the school library is also affected, as are other facilities including electrical wiring,” he said.
Chieng also suggested that the school apply for funds from the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) to cover the cost of the repairs as SMK Sacred Heart is a mission school and is eligible to receive Unifor allocations.
“In addition, I call on the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) to allocate a certain amount of funds to SMK Sacred Heart.
“This matter should be added considering that this school is also under the Ministry of Education,” he stressed.
He also requested Lanang MP Alice Lau to help the school in terms of providing funds.
“This coming Monday (April 17), the Divisional Engineer of Public Works Department (JKR) will come to the school to estimate the cost of repairing the damage.
“This is because we need a government agency to make a cost estimate to support the application for funds to Unifor,” he said.
Chieng also said that the repair work on the school’s roof has been completed.
Meanwhile, Sacred Heart Ex-Students Association (SHOSA) president Penghulu Yong King Sung, said the school needed another RM100,000 to repair the school library which had been damaged the worst by the storm.
This, he said, includes repairing or replacing the floor, electrical wiring, books and other internal facilities.
“If we want to restore the library to its original state, I think we need hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” he said.
Yong said that a total of RM90,000 had been spent to complete roof repairs while another RM30,000 was spent to repair the electrical wiring.
Accordingly, he called on former students to step forward to contribute funds to help the school pay for repairs. — DayakDaily
