By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Dec 13: A total of RM3,565,874 in grants from the Sarawak government under the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) has been disbursed to 23 mission schools in the Sibu division.
According to a press release, the grants were presented by Advisor to Mission Authority, Roman Catholic Diocese of Sibu, Datuk Snowdan Lawan, to Bishop Joseph Hii Teck Kwong at his office in MASJA II recently.
The grants received will be disbursed to seven schools in Sibu, followed by five in Dalat, three each in Sarikei and Selangau, two in Mukah, and one each in Kanowit, Julau, Meradong, and Song.
In his speech, Snowdan, who is also the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts, advised the schools to utilise the funds according to their intended purposes.
As the grants are approved based on the request from the respective working papers and costing presented by the schools, he also advised them to submit progress reports to Unifor for monitoring purposes.
“The requests are for many purposes, such as building maintenance, purchases of ICT and electronics services, upgrading of classrooms, digital rooms, construction of new school blocks, upgrading the drainage system, CCTV installation, computers for digital learning, furniture, football fields, pathways, and many others.
“All these are for the benefits and convenience of our school-going children, the teachers, staff, and the school administrators themselves,” he said.
Snowdan further remarked that mission schools in Sarawak are fortunate to receive financial support from the State government, unlike other states in the country.
“We are also very fortunate because next year, the allocation for Unifor has been increased to RM120 million as announced by our Premier, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, recently. This shows that our GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) government is sincere in assisting interfaith tolerance.
“We are hopeful that despite our diverse community structure, the people will continue to live peacefully and always maintain a high degree of tolerance to maintain peace and harmony,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stephen Tan, the secretary and chairman of the Sibu Diocesan Catholic Education Council, reflected Snowdan’s words, saying that they are blessed in Sarawak.
Also present was assistant secretary Catherine Chan. — DayakDaily
