TAMBUNAN: A capacity building project to train some 60 women folk in traditional weaving and bead-making skills under the sponsorship of Talisman Malaysia was launched yesterday at Kampung Monsok, near here.
The project is a collaboration between Talisman, an international upstream oil and gas company with operations in Malaysia as the funder, Sabah Museum as the training resource and Sabah Homestay Association (Tambunan Village Homestay), an NGO dedicated towards supporting rural villagers in uplifting their household income through tourism-based products.
Tambunan District officer Thomas Logijin who launched the programme commended this community support initiative from Talisman Malaysia and he hoped the participants would take full advantage of the training and become competent weavers and bead makers for their own benefit.
Talisman Malaysia Kinabalu asset manager Duncan Smart said they were pleased to be partners in the project with Sabah Museum and Sabah Homestay Association, who possessed the resources and experience to turn this project into a success story that we could all be proud of.
The project objectives are to train the participants in reviving the traditional weaving and bead-making skills in order to create a sustainable income for their families and raise their business awareness.
Talisman Malaysia has allocated RM46,000 for the purchase of equipment and training materials and participants’ start-up costs.
The long term aim of this project is to build a strong community group that is capable of running a sustainable small enterprise and bring an alternative revenue stream to their families.
As an added incentive to the participants, Duncan announced that Talisman Malaysia would make a further award of RM3,000 after 12 months. This will be shared between the three most productive and profitable pairs of participants.
This latest project marked the second capacity building project in support of human capital development of marginalised communities by Talisman Malaysia in Sabah since the expansion of their business operations here in 2012.
The first project was funding the training of some 80 single mothers in Bongawan, in the commercial production of salted eggs to create a sustainable alternative income for the participants and their
families.
Duncan explained that Talisman Malaysia, a subsidiary of Talisman Energy, was passionate about helping the local communities in their area of operations, adding that “our support centred around four themes; safety, education, health and capacity building.”
Director of Sabah Museum Puan Joanna Datuk Kitingan, who is also deputy president of Sabah Homestay Association, said the project meant a lot to the people of Tambunan as it represented the revival of a traditional skill which was once the pride of their ancestors.
“Besides becoming a sustainable source of income for the participants, this new initiative and the finished products will serve as a cultural heritage and to be promoted as a tourism product of Tambunan,” she enthused.
Sabah Museum held a mini exhibition to display the evolution of ‘sinombiaka’, the Tambunan traditional costume and presented a slideshow on traditional weaving and bead making in Sabah.
The three parties in the project yesterday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to formalise their collaboration.