Phoong with the children at the tuition class.
KOTA KINABALU: DAP State Assemblyman for Luyang, Phoong Jin Zhe, has become a part-time tutor for children in his constituency.
He made the offer to help the children in their studies when inspecting the free tuition at his community center on Saturday.
The program saw about 20 children receiving free tuition program conducted by volunteer teachers.
Currently the tuition classes are set on every Friday and Saturday afternoon.
Phoong also posted on his Facebook page saying: “I finally fulfilled a promise! Seeing the smiles on the face of the children, everything is worth the effort.”
Phoong also said that since he established the Luyang Community Center in October last year, he promised to offer free tuition program to help children in need.
In the past year, he has also been committed to providing welfare assistance and community services to the people of Luyang in his effort to create a harmonious community for Luyang.
“As the Chinese proverbs says: let us pay respect to other elderlies when we pay respect to those in our own home; let us teach the other children when we teach those under our care.
” Education is the foundation of any country. No matter rich or poor, all children must have equal access to education. As it is in my capacity and power to provide for the welfare of my constituency, I wish to help children in need to get access to education,” said Phoong.
He also revealed that ever since the Luyang Community Center is established, the centre has organized a variety of community events and activities such as free tuition for children, health talks for senior citizens and parent-child activities to help foster the spirit of kinship in the community.
These events are funded from various sources, a small portion from the State Assemblyman’s fund, and most of them donations from the public, achieving a real demonstration of giving back to society.
Lydia Leong, event coordinator at Luyang Community Center, said that in the process of filtering the students, parents had to report the total income of the family.
In addition, she will also take steps to learn more about the family background of the applicants in order to decide whether they are eligible for the program.