KOTA KINABALU: The SP Setia School Adoption Programme (SAP) was launched in Sabah yesterday after helping many underprivileged families for the past 12 years.
With the launch of the programme by SP Setia Foundation, 200 students from six schools in the city were selected to receive educational assistance amounting to RM1,000 each annually.
SP Setia Foundation chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye disclosed after the launch yesterday that the programme is part of the foundation’s corporate social responsibility, as a way of giving back to the local community with the setting up of the Aeropod development project.
“We have been planning to extend SAP to Sabah for a while now since our Aeropod project started in Tanjung Aru.
“Under the programme, each student will receive assistance worth RM1,000 yearly for their school fees, textbooks, computer fees, school bags, tuition fees, stationery, uniforms, and canteen meals,” explained Lee.
He urged the adopted students to appreciate the assistance and reminded them to fulfill their duty by studying diligently to strive for academic excellence, and that the assistance could be retracted for poor academic performance.
To help meet this goal, Lee also called on parents of the adopted students to be more involved in their children’s studies to ensure that their academic performance were always up to the standard.
According to Lee, SAP started in 2000 in West Malaysia with only 79 students from three primary schools.
To date, it had adopted some 2,500 students from Primary One to university students, with the 200 students in Sabah being its latest addition.
On whether there were plans to expand the programme to other parts of the state, Lee disclosed that it would depend on the foundation’s financial capability.
He revealed that the foundation had spent a total of RM23 million under the programme since its inception, with at least RM500,000 needed annually for Sabah alone.
He added that SAP was a long term programme, assisting adopted students from Primary One up to Primary Six, continuing the assistance for students who did well in their academic achievement to secondary education, and on to tertiary education should they continue to do well.
Lee said out of the total number of adopted students since 2000, 10 were now pursuing their tertiary education while 400 were in secondary schools, all of whom had been educationally supported by the foundation since their primary education.
Other educational activities are organised throughout the year, such as UPSR camps, holiday camps, and Excellence Awards Night to honour the high achievers, to further motivate the adopted students.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, who was also present at the launching ceremony yesterday, applauded the foundation for SAP and urged other corporate bodies to follow in the footsteps of SP Setia to help the needy.
The six schools selected for the first phase of the programme in Sabah were SK Tanjung Aru 1, SK Kepayan, SRK Sacred Heart, SK Stella Maris, SJK (C) Chung Hwa, and SJK (C) Yick Nam.
Also present at the launching ceremony yesterday were general manager of Aeropod Sdn Bhd, Datuk Wong Tuck Wai, chief executive officer of SP Setia Foundation, Captain Dato’ Liew Siong Sing (R), and SJK (C) Chung Hwa Kota Kinabalu principal Datuk Eng Thiam Leong.