Trans Borneo participants and residents of Kampung Long Pasia taking a memorable photo during the program.
KOTA KINABALU (June 22): University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has successfully implemented 10 transfer projects during the 2023 Trans Borneo Program at Kampung Long Pasia in Sipitang.
Themed ‘To Long Pasia’, the five-day program was organized by UMS Four Wheel Drive Volunteer Club (UMS 4WDVC) in collaboration with UMS Hospital, through KPT Prihatin Komuniti Sejahtera (KRIS), as well as UMS’ departments, academies, faculties, centers and institutes.
According to UMS Vice Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr Kasim Hj Mansor, the annual program involved communities from rural areas.
“I feel very proud because the participation in this program involves university students as well as affiliated members of the UMS Four-Wheel Drive Volunteer Club.
“UMS is also moving to interior areas to impart knowledge to the local communities so that they do not fall behind in the current modernisation,” he said when officiating the program at Kampung Long Pasia in Sipitang recently.
Kasim said many participants were interested in the knowledge transfer program which is expected to have a high impact on Long Pasia community.
He said UMS as one of the public universities in the state of Sabah that has expertise in disciplines should lead and be able to drive activities towards improving and empowering rural communities that are far from the current development by holding knowledge transfer programs in various disciplines.
“Among the projects carried out were transfer of health, medical and dental education knowledge led by UMS Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“The long Pasia e-Village solar system installation knowledge transfer program and compost technology is led by the Faculty of Engineering in collaboration with the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture.
“While the transfer of knowledge of aquaculture technology and water filtration technology is led by the Borneo Marine Research Institute and the Biotechnology Research Institute,” he said.
According to Kasim, the transfer of Malaysia Madani arts and culture is led by Azman Hashim Gallery and the Academy of Creative Arts and Technology as well as sports and leisure education run by the UMS Sports Center.
He said the transfer of ICT and computer technology knowledge, environmental awareness and biodiversity as well as safety and society are handled by the Department of Information and Communication Technology, the Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation and the Security Division of UMS.
“This program needs to be documented through the publication of books, photos or videos intended to be used as reference material and all findings and data sources can be presented through an exhibition with the help of the UMS Azman Hashim Gallery for viewing by students and the general public.
“Therefore such programs like this should be carried out periodically so that rural communities do not fall behind in terms of transferring knowledge that is beneficial to them and hopefully with the transfer of this knowledge they can further improve the living standards of rural communities that value knowledge and always want to move forward,” he said.
A total of 100 UMS staff and UMS 4WDVC associate members took part in the ‘To Long Pasia’ Trans Borneo 2023 program.
Also involved were UMS Academic and International Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dr Shahril Yusof who is also the president of UMS 4WDVC; chairman of Trans Borneo 2023, Professor Datuk Dr D Kamarudin D Mudin; Long Pasia village head Yakub bin Sim and SK Long Pasia headmaster Micheal Opai.