Sulaiman shows the ‘kampung angkat’ (adopted village) certificate, given to Kampung Segedup following its collaboration with Unimas’ FCSIT.
KUCHING: The quiet village of Kampung Segedup here is now a part of the digital world following the launching of its community website for the use of villagers.
The website, developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), introduces e-commerce features with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship among the residents. FCSIT dean Associate Professor Dr Johari Abdullah said the project is a part of the faculty’s service learning programme which was launched in 2016.
“The objective of the programme has always been for students to understand and apply what they have learned in the lectures at the community level,” he said in his speech when officiating the website’s launch during a ceremony at the village’s multi-purpose hall on Saturday.
Johari explained that during the first year of the programme in 2016, some 400 students were sent to engage with the community at villages and schools.
“From there, they learned to engage with the dwellers and even explore Sarawak as not all of them are locals. Some of them are from Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
On the role of e-commerce in marketing local products to the outside world, he said that although some products may seem ‘ordinary’ to the villagers, there is always potential for the products to be a hit when marketed on the internet.
Meanwhile, Kampung Segedup village chief Sulaiman Alwi thanked Unimas for their collaboration on the website project and acknowledged the status of the Kampung Segedup as the ‘adopted village’ of FCSIT.
“At first, it was hard for me to keep up with technology and understand it. But after getting support from my peers, the programme ran smoothly. Thankfully now, we are no longer left behind as we have our own community website,” he said.