Sunita Vincent: A humble teacher who makes inspiring changes for her students in Kudat, Sabah.

Sunita Vincent is an aspiring teacher who has helped over 300 families situated in Kudat, Sabah by delivering food baskets for students and their families who are in need.

When and how did it all start?

It all traces back to 1998 when at 22 years old, Sunita realized she had a passion for teaching when she just wanted to fill her time. In 2001, she taught in a remote area in Kelawang (Jelebu) where they did not even have phone lines as they were rather isolated. . Through her passion for teaching and dedication to her students, she was nominated for the McDonald’s Anugerah Guru Inspirasi in 2021.

In 2014, Sunita and her family moved to Kudat Sabah to be with her side of the family and she started teaching students there. However, amidst the outbreak of Covid-19 when classes were moved online, she noticed that her student’s engagement in class dropped due to the waves of MCO. . She started to reach out to the students to ask if they needed help and 3 students between the ages of 9-10 years old requested her help for food. To her astonishment, after visiting the homes of the 3 students, it opened her eyes and she wanted to help others. As a result, this led her husband to post on social media to seek and connect with others who are in need.

What is she currently doing at the moment?

Currently, Sunita is providing a food basket of basic needs and formula milk to a few families in Kudat, Sabah. Furthermore, in order to help increase her students' engagement and help them to learn online, stationery and learning materials were distributed as well. In spite of that, it takes about two whole days to go into the remote areas and provide the necessities for the families that she is helping due to the lack of developed infrastructure. A few villages that she has been visiting are:

• Kampung Tungkang (around 15 – 20 km from Kudat Town) – where the communities are mostly migrants (some without proper documentation) & fishermen. Moreover, some did not go to school and were not even able to enroll due to their lack of documentation

• Kudat Town

• Tajau Laut

However, many communities still lack the resources that are required for their daily usage. Firstly, there is a lack of food baskets that include basic needs, food items, and formula milk for them even though there are 3 food banks located in the whole of Kudat. Due to the lack of work and income throughout the pandemic, these families do not have any means to provide for themselves. Secondly, many of them are in need of mobile phones. On average, there is only 1 mobile phone per family with 5-6 children. Thus, when their parents leave for work and take the phone, the children are unable to participate in their respective classes and engage in online learning.

In order to continue her project, Sunita is working closely with a couple of NGOs based in KL and a group of friends who make occasional donations to help support her initiative. Furthermore, we are pleased to inform you that we had the privilege to reach out to Sunita and make a donation to help her provide the requested necessities for the students and their families.

Keen to be a part of the initiative?

The good news is that we are accepting another round of donations soon if you would like to be a part of this initiative. By donating used phones or food baskets, this will aid the communities to have the resources that are needed for online learning and enough food supplies for the families in the Kudat community. If you wish to know more about this project or would like to donate, you can contact us at www.nairenon.com/contactus