KUCHING, Nov 24: Plans to turn Kampung Segedup into a modern village hub have kicked off, with the launch of the village’s own community website for its residents.
Developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), the website will introduce e-commerce features to foster entrepreneurship among the villagers.
According to FCSIT Dean Associate Professor Dr Johari Abdullah, the project was part of the faculty’s service learning programme which started in 2016.
“The objective of the programme has always been for students to understand and apply what they have learned in lectures at the community level,” he said when officiating the website launch at the Kampung Segedup multipurpose hall, yesterday.
Dr Johari explained that during the programme’s first year in 2016, some 400 students were sent to engage with the communities at various villages and schools.
From there, students learnt to engage with the public and get to know Sarawak better because some of them are from Peninsular Malaysia.
Dr Johari also lauded the digital economy initiative which was first introduced by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg back in 2017.
On the role of e-commerce in marketing local products to the outside world, Dr Johari said that although some products seem commonplace to the locals, but when they are marketed on the Internet, there is always potential for the products to be even more successful.
Meanwhile, Kampung Segedup village chief Sulaiman Alwi thanked the university for their collaboration on the website project and acknowledged that the village has been recognised as ‘kampung angkat’ (adopted village) of FCSIT.
“At first, it was hard for me to keep up with technology and understand it, but after the support and help from my friends and fellow villagers, the programme ran smoothly. Now, we are no longer left behind because we have our own community website,” Sulaiman said.
With the recognition as ‘kampung angkat’ by the FCSIT, Sulaiman expects the village can look forward to Unimas students visiting it every year. — DayakDaily
