KUCHING, Feb 16: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii of Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak will try to facilitate the vaccination for stateless children at the Persatuan Pendidikan D’Wira centre.
Dr Yii visited the centre this morning to present new school uniforms to some of the students at the centre so that they could prepare for the new school semester.
He hoped the gesture would not only help the lower income group families of the children, but more importantly encourage them to study hard and be able to put on new clothes for the school year.
Persatuan Pendidikan D’Wira, he explained, is a non-governmental educational organisation founded by a couple who are trained teachers and passionate about education in the city.
The centre has been established for more than 12 years and aims to provide school-age children from disadvantaged families, especially poor and stateless children, with learning and educational opportunities.
While some of the students do have the opportunity to go to government schools, they still come back to the centre to get extra tutoring to ensure they can keep up with their studies.
He said at the beginning, many students didn’t really know how to read or write even though they are at secondary school age, which was why the centre intervened by providing guidance in their studies to ensure they will not be left behind.
At present, the association has a total of 66 students, aged between 4 and 17, of which 38 are stateless children.
“These stateless children have no place to go to get proper education as they are not accepted in government schools. During the time of Pakatan Harapan (PH), we introduced a ‘zero-reject policy’ where all students can go to school.
“During that time, many of these stateless children could get into schools. However since the change of government, this policy seems to be reversed and now these stateless kids have no where to go.
“On top of that, due to the lack of identification documents for stateless children, their application for the Covid-19 vaccination has been rejected. The founder of the association is currently actively working through various channels to fight for these stateless children to ensure that they too can get the vaccine and receive proper protection.
“Thus i will also be assisting them through my various platforms in Parliament and will speak to the Minister of Health to ensure they are not left out and that these vulnerable groups can receive equal basic treatment,” said Dr Yii in a statement today. — DayakDaily
