Welfare Department and the Orang Asli Affairs Department (Jakoa)

Kehadiran murid Orang Asli SK Tohoi tunjuk perkembangan positif

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Perkembangan positif kehadiran pelajar SK Tohoi menunjukkan masyarakat Orang Asli secara beransur-ansur makin pulih daripada trauma insiden kehilangan murid Orang Asli Ogos lalu. – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider, 15 Januari, 2016.

Kehadiran lebih ramai murid Orang Asli ke Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi menunjukkan perkembangan positif dengan purata kehadiran sekitar 115 orang sehari berbanding 101 pada minggu pertama persekolahan.

Pegawai Pendidikan Daerah Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah (PPD) Gua Musang Muhammad Zahari Othman berkata peningkatan itu disebabkan pelbagai faktor termasuk kesedaran ibu bapa dan murid, selain keadaan cuaca dan usaha berterusan Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA) serta Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri (JPN).

“Setakat ini peratus kehadiran pelajar adalah antara 55 hingga 58% setiap hari dan ia adalah keadaan biasa seperti tahun-tahun sebelum ini,” katanya ketika dihubungi di Kota Baru, hari ini. Read more →

Orang Asli authorities continue to coax parents into sending kids to SK Tohoi

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

The Orang Asli Development Department will continue to persuade parents to send their kids to SK Tohoi despite the fatal runaway incident last year. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 10, 2016.

The Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) will continue to persuade the Pos Tohoi Orang Asli community to send their children back to school.

Jakoa director-general Datuk Hasnan Hassan said a total of 74 students had yet to report for school even though it had been a week since the new school session began.

“However, we are thankful the number has increased to 115 students compared to 99 when the session started.

“SK Tohoi has 189 students and most of them live in the villages of Penad, Gawin, Simpor, Sedal, Dangdut, Halak, Rekom and Jader and the distance to school is a problem for them.” Read more →

The runaway children Malaysia failed to save

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Source: BBC News

Pic by Malaysian Insider / Najjua Zulkefli, taken from BBC News website

Earlier this year seven children from an indigenous Malaysian tribe ran away from school and got lost in the jungle. Seven weeks later, only two survivors were found. The shocking case raises uncomfortable questions about Malaysia’s treatment of this minority.

A group of children are lying on the floor of a bamboo hut drawing with crayons and felt tips. It is mid-morning and they should be in lessons but the pupils from the villages in this area don’t go to school any more.

At first the nine and 10-year-olds are shy but then they start telling me about one of the teachers in the residential school they used to go to.

“He punished us even if we did nothing wrong,” says one of them. “He made us stand outside in the sun for ages with our desks on our heads and our knees bent, like this.”

As she demonstrates the posture, the others burst into peals of laughter. But one girl in a striped T-shirt is silent and focuses on her picture.

She is 10-year-old Norieen Yaakob. Last summer she and six classmates could no longer bear the harsh discipline at the school, so they fled into the rainforest.

These children are Orang Asli which in Malay means “original people” and they’re the earliest known inhabitants of the Malaysian peninsula. Read more →

Return to the Royal Belum State Park

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Source: The Star

BY ELROI YEE, MARYAM ZAINOL, SHANJEEV REDDY and LIM MAY LEE

“HURRY up and gather everyone, there are important people here who want to see you,” said a young doctor, snapping his fingers at Kurup.

We were in front of Kurup’s house, along the Sungai Kejar in the Royal Belum State Park. Kurup is the orang asli man who lost his granddaughter Malini to sickness last month. We were there the morning the young girl passed away, and later witnessed the burial rituals.

Malini’s death, along with the accounts of many more child deaths from an illness known to locals as serawan, were documented in a report by R.AGE on the plight of the orang asli in Sungai Kejar. Read more →

Jahai folk refuse treatment from health officers and run away

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Source: The Star Online

A child suffering from a disease known to the Jahai tribe as ‘serawan’, taken during a previous trip to the Royal Belum State Park. The child has since fully recovered. — ELROI YEE/ The Star

IPOH: The Jahai tribe in Kampung Sungai Kejar in the Royal Belum rainforest complex believe strongly in their pantang larang (superstitions) and reject modern medicine.

The villagers prefer to rely on traditional methods of curing diseases and shy away from medical officers of the Perak Health Department.

Perak Health Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said this way of life was hindering the department from helping them.

“They refuse treatment from our health officers and run away from us,” he said.

It was reported by The Star‘s R.AGE team that there have been multiple child deaths among the Jahai tribe, related to “serawan” – a strange disease which the villagers said starts with white spots in the mouth and kills within days. Read more →

Jakoa to check claims of 200 orang asli deaths

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Source: The Star Online

A child suffering from a disease known to the Jahai tribe as ‘serawan’, taken during a previous trip to the Royal Belum State Park. The child has since fully recovered. — ELROI YEE/ The Star

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry would have raised the alarm if there were a high number of deaths due to thrush (oral infection) even among the orang asli community in remote areas, says the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa).

Jakoa deputy director general Suhaimi Mahmud said he was taken aback over reports in The Star in which the orang asli claimed that many had died in Royal Belum State Park in Perak.

“We are going down to the ground to check. It is impossible that such a high number of deaths had gone unnoticed,” he said.

The orang asli claimed that some 200 people have died of the disease.

Suhaimi said they would check the number of new graves in the area. Read more →

Jakoa, JPN laksana program untuk pelajar SK Tohoi kembali ke sekolah

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Kehadiran pelajar di SK Tohoi menurun kepada 50%, berbanding 85% sebelum tragedi kehilangan 7 kanak-kanak Orang Asli dengan 4 daripadanya meninggal dunia. – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider, 28 Oktober, 2015.

Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (Jakoa) Kelantan akan bekerjasama dengan Jabatan Pendidikan (JPN) negeri itu, dalam melaksanakan program bagi menarik minat murid Orang Asli di Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi, agar kembali ke sekolah.

Jakoa dalam kenyataan semalam berkata, kehadiran pelajar di SK Tohoi menurun kepada 50%, berbanding 85% sebelum tragedi yang menimpa 4 pelajar sekolah berkenaan. Read more →

Orang Asli families need financial aid to bury their children, says activist

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

Two members of the Orang Asli community being interviewed by activist Siti Zabedah Kasim, ahead of funeral rites to bury four children who were found dead in the jungles of Kelantan this month. – YouTube pic via Siti Kasim Facebook, October 19, 2015.

An activist has appealed the public to help with funeral expenses for the four Orang Asli children who were found dead after they went missing in the jungles of Kelantan.

Lawyer Siti Zabedah Kasim, who is a member of the Malaysian Bar’s Human Rights and Orang Asli Rights committees, announced the request in a Facebook posting this morning, and furnished her bank account details.

“After discussing with the villagers in Kampung Penad and Kampung Gawin yesterday, the funds required is estimated around RM10,000.

“This is to cover the expenses of putting up tents, tarpaulin and food for seven days of the Temiyar funeral rites in both villages,” Siti Kasim told The Malaysian Insider. Read more →

Families of missing Orang Asli children say authorities kept them in the dark [UPDATED]

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Families of four of the children wait for news at the Goa Hotel in Gua Musang. — Picture by Azinuddin Ghazali

GUA MUSANG, Oct 12 — The families of the missing pupils have not only been emotionally drained by the tragedy but left feeling neglected.

“Welfare is one thing but the fact that we were not informed of the latest updates has angered us,” Nora Tegeu, 39, mother of Ika Ayel, whose body was found by search and rescue (SAR) personnel on Friday, said.

“It is our children who have gone missing and we deserve to be informed first and not those not directly concerned.”

Latip Aban, 45, grandfather of Sasa Sobrie, eight, said they did not receive a formal briefing by authorities on rescue activities.

“Most of the times we asked other villagers to find out if there were any leads,” he said.

He said that when the families arrived from Kampung Simpul, Kampung Gawen and Kampung Penad — 50km and four hours away from Pos Tohoi — after receiving news of the children, they were not even provided with a place to stay.  Read more →