Wednesday, June 15, 2005

SuperKids in Sabah


Superkids in Sabah Posted by Hello

NST, June 15, 2005.

The picture shows the school children who had to daily cling on to their dear life as they negotiate their way across this dilapidated suspension bridges in Nabawan, Sabah.

For many urban children, a trip to school means boarding a car or a bus and being dropped off outside the school gates. But for youngsters at a remote village in Sabah’s interior Nabawan district, the daily trip to school and back is a gamble with their lives. The 60 children of Kampung Labang, some 250km from Kota Kinabalu, have to cross the 80m-wide Sungai Sapulut on a rickety suspension bridge that is nothing more than a few cables strung across the waterway to go to SK Labang. With their shoes inside their school bags, the children aged 7 to 12, walk barefooted on the lower cable with hands grasping the upper cable.

Nabawan district officer Raymond Basir said yesterday that repair work on the bridge would be carried out as soon as possible. But how soon? Before someone gets killed, or what?

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