By Christopher Lidom
KUCHING, July 4: DayakDaily’s D’Drift 2022 team is adding a worthwhile cause to its annual travel-reporting this year as the team will be carrying a special delivery of over 1,000 children’s books to SK Lusong Laku, to set up a children’s library.
For this cause, Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) and Sarawak State Library contributed 500 books while DayakDaily and Pertubuhan Wartawan Bebas Kuching (Pewarta) managed to collect 514 books.
Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah believed the books would inspire the children of SK Lusong Laku to learn and read more.
“It would be exciting for the children of SK Lusong Laku to receive the reading materials,” he told reporters during a press conference held at DayakDaily’ office here today before the D’Drift Team was flagged off.
Abdul Karim hoped more corporate entities would come forward to make more contributions to schools or villages in Sarawak’s interior.
He noted rural school libraries may face difficulties in obtaining and up-keeping their stock of reading materials annually.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim, who is also the Minister for Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development, said apart from its charity efforts, this year’s D’Drift trip as in previous years, will continue to showcase more of Sarawak’s beauty through reporters’ articles and photographs.
“In some way, this will help to introduce the national parks in Sarawak to the world at large, and it (articles) will not only be read by Sarawakians, but people from other parts of the world will also be reading about the experiences,” he said.
The D’Drifters this year are joined by TV Sarawak (TVS) as well as Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) whose purpose is to check on Internet coverage along the planned route of the trip.
Hopping from one district to another, among the highlights for the D’Drifters will be transporting the donated books to Lusong Laku, to be handled over to Murum assemblyman Kennedy Chukpai Ugon who will then pass the books to the school.
Situated in the interior of Belaga, SK Lusong Laku which serves mainly three Penan villages, is about five hours’ drive away from Sungai Asap, which in turn is about two hours away from Bintulu.
D’Drift 2022 (July 4 to 13) marks DayakDaily’s third annual statewide trip for on the-ground coverage and travel-writing highlighting various districts, sub-districts, towns and settlements across Sarawak.
Similar to previous years, DayakDaily will feature three selected tourism attractions in Sarawak including two national parks which are worthy of national and international attention. It is also the hope of D’Drifters to uncover some hidden gems such as unusual food and little known locations.
DayakDaily expresses the utmost gratitude to the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts for its continuous sponsorship and support of D’Drift since 2020. Without the support of the ministry, DayakDaily’s annual trip and the book drive this year would not be possible.
Telang Usan assemblyman, who is also Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) chairman, Dennis Ngau, Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee, Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) Head of Section, Visitors and Products Management, Ecotourism and Business Development Arianti Atong, Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations president Dato Richard Wee and Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (Sheda) advisor Datuk William Wei were among those present. — DayakDaily
