The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
- All Saints Secondary School’s sustainable farming effort sets a good example
- CM praises organisation for its noble work
- MP gets the backing from two groups
| All Saints Secondary School’s sustainable farming effort sets a good example Posted: 12 Sep 2012 06:55 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU: Talks of green living and eating healthy food are becoming hot topics among people, especially health and figure conscious individuals. Many are opting for sustainable farmed organic food, and lean meat instead of pesticide contaminated vegetables or hormone injected farm animals for their daily dietary supplement. Realising the importance of cleaner food, air and environment, one teacher, Wong Foo, from the All Saints Secondary School near here have set up a horticulture club to promote sustainable farming. The physics teacher came up with an idea of changing the school's landscape into a "gardenscape" concept early April last year, and gathered several pioneer members to assist him. "The students and I started off small, and planted vegetables at a small piece of land behind the school without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers," he said during the launch of the horticulture club last week. "It was hard at first because resources were limited and our manpower was small, but after a few months, our first few patches of vegetables grew magnificently and I decided to expand this initiative by starting a club (unofficially) in January this year," Wong said. Since then, over 40 students from the Forms 4 and 5 Science classes have worked hand in hand to plant more vegetables in the school compound, with an accumulated plantation area reaching about half an acre now. This effort had also attracted the Sabah Environmental Protection Association (SEPA) and the Environment Action Commission (EAC) to help the club members and school in their sustainable farming programmes. In this respect, club president Ricky Wong said the sustainable farming in the school was made possible because of the support from students and teachers. "We started with the preparatory stage, then maintaining the vegetable patch so they would grow well for harvesting, and lastly to be sold among school teachers and parents," he explained. Ricky said the teachers have also shown support by advising them on how to go about the project and bought the vegetables when they were ready for harvest. He said fertilizers were self-made using carbon, rice bran, chicken dung and molasses. "The process to make these fertilizers take about two weeks, whereas vegetables which are planted on rotation basis take about one to three months to grow, depending on the type of vegetables," he said. The types of vegetables planted include spinach, Chinese cabbage or bak choi, yam, bittergourd and baby kailan. Wong said they also plant flowers around the vegetables so that insects and other pests would nibble on the flowers instead of the vegetables to keep them fresh and edible. Meanwhile, Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry permanent secretary, Datuk Michael Emban who represented the minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun hopes the programme continues and spreads on to other schools. "This is an area which the ministry is responsible, so we will definitely support these initiatives with the hope that other schools will emulate," he said. |
| CM praises organisation for its noble work Posted: 12 Sep 2012 06:51 PM PDT MALACCA: Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam met up with pastors and officials of the local evangelical churches and denominational groups and learnt about the good and noble work undertaken by AGAPECare and also dropped by its OPal (One Parent Link) division to find out on their developments. OPal is one of six divisions under the 2007 established AGAPECare which serves single parents and their children. This division with its in-house LIFEline attends to saving unborn children while assisting women in crisis pregnancy. Catching up with 25 singles mothers, 40 children and 20 senior citizens from various ethnic backgrounds and faith, Mohd Ali paid tribute and praise to AGAPECare board members, its full time trained staff and dedicated band of volunteers for undertaking a noble stance towards people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the poor, elderly and others sidelined by community, society and family "Working tirelessly to nurture people sidelined by community and society and the underprivileged to progress through life with purpose, renewed vigour and meaning despite their adverse circumstances, is indeed very noble. "Your selfless giving for the benefit of these unfortunate ones and touching their hearts and making a difference in their lives is truly commendable, " he said. The chief minister also presented a donation of RM10,000 for the continued good work of AGAPECare and pledged to look into the housing needs of six single mothers. Executive vice president of AGAPECare Josephine Au explained that the non-profit Christian social organisation caters to the needs of a wide cross section of the local community and society's marginalised, disadvantaged and sidelined irrespective of ethnicity, faith and gender. Meanwhile, the AGAPECare for the Elderly (ACE) celebrated its fifth anniversary after relocating from its crammed premises in Taman Pringgit Jaya to the multi-purpose hall owned by the Gereja Presbyterian Melaka in Malim Jaya. Josephine said it was disheartening to hear about seniors who were abandoned at the old folks home. "In the midst of this piece of distressing news, we are proud to say that we have six outfits under the AGAPECare umbrella where we care and meet the needs of senior citizens and those in their sunset golden years. The outfits include ACE Club, ACE Kpoitiam, ACE Day Care Centre, the Melaka Alzheimer's Caregivers Support Group, ACE Rehab Aids and OPal. Of the lot, ACE Club and ACE Kopitiam are proving very popular in recent years with the rest particularly OPal also chalking up enthusiastic response." Briefly, the ACE Club and ACE Kopitiam empowers seniors to reach out and support each other through regular organised activities that include health and wellness programmes, interactive group sessions, continued learning and educational programmes, event celebrations, outstation excursions and local visits. The ACE Day Care Centre is a drop in centre for the elderly who need care and supervision while family members are either outstation or away at work. In recent months, AGAPECare is focusing much attention on OPal by empowering single mothers to "restore their lives" by providing them and their children support in areas such as finance, legal aid, education and household essentials and needs. "Counselling, parenting courses and skills training opportunities also provided by local agencies on a case by case basis, said Josephine. In some case, the centre provides practical aid and encourages financial independence through assistance in job placements and home enterprise development ventures, she added. For details, call 013-626 5119 (Josephine). |
| MP gets the backing from two groups Posted: 12 Sep 2012 06:48 PM PDT CAMERON HIGHLANDS: As talk of the next general election looms, two groups here have come out to express support to their incumbent MP. They openly declared their backing for Cameron Higlands MP Datuk S.K. Devamany, who is also the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. Pos Titom Batin Ramli Min Hat, 46, said their village would only give their votes to Devamany and hoped the Government's would take heed of their request. "I believe the country's leaders are aware that our community has always been supportive of the Government. "So, give us who we want and we will deliver the votes. Otherwise, we will have to say sorry to Barisan Nasional," he said. Recently, it was speculated that MIC president Senator Datuk Seri G. Palanivel would stand in Cameron Highlands while Devamany was to be fielded in Teluk Kemang. The expected line-up did not go down well with some quarters who preferred Devamany to remain in the parliamentary constituency. Pos Senderut Batin Mahathir Yok Tegos, 45, said Devamany had assisted in seeking RM30mil to upgrade the main road leading into 14 villages in the settlement. He said some 4,000 orang asli in the villages were thankful to Devamany and had pledged their support for him. Pos Lenjang Batin Nyatim Teman, 39, said a stretch of the 35km road would be upgraded with an allocation of RM10mil from the Government next year. "Pos Lemoi will also be getting RM10mil to upgrade its road near Bertam Valley. "This is due to the proposals submitted by Devamany and we are indeed grateful to him for looking after our needs and welfare," he said. Orang asli youth leader from Pos Lenjang Angah Talib, 35, said Pos Titom, Pos Senderut, Pos Lenjang and Pos Lemoi had a combination of about 6,000 voters. He said Devamany was a people-friendly representative and had assisted in bringing much development to the constituency. "We urge the Government to re-nominate him so he can continue to represent us," he said. Meanwhile, a group of Chinese voters here brought along a banner, expressing their wish to have Devamany remain as their MP. A spokesman for the group, who declined to be named, said they were happy with the services rendered by Devamany for the past two terms. "We will give our votes to him and no one else. We hope Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will nominate him again to stand in the coming general election. "In addition, we will give our support to Barisan's candidates in Tanah Rata and Jelai state seats," said the spokesman. In the 2008 general election, Devamany retained the seat with a majority of 3,117 votes against DAP's J. Apalasamy. |
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