My travels into Pitas, Sabah started in December 2014 with a team of friends from a human rights NGO there. It took us 4 hours to get into this far rural areas of this river villages hidden from society and modern civilisation. Pitas has 5 different villages and about 300 families living here.
The local indigenous tribes live with no basic needs such as clean drinking water, no electricity, limited medical care and no proper education. This are the citizens of Malaysia, the humans of our lands.
I spoke to one of the local society leaders here.
“Tell me the worse experience that the tribe had in the past?”
“A few years ago, a lady had to give birth to her baby in the boat, while on the way to the nearest medical clinic.
They are not provided with any medical care for mothers or babies in the village today, so they have to travel 3-4 hours out to the small town in Pitas a month before they are due.”
“How about the children and education here?”
“The school is also far away, the children have to walk to get there, so they travel to the next village, at times in the dark, they stay over night, and get to school the next day. They only go to school 3 days in a week. Their homes have no power too.”
He ended by saying, “Don’t get me started on the issues with religious politics, human discrimination and the old folks here..”
Pitas, Sabah is only 2 hours the nearest town which has power and all the facilities, Kota Kinabalu is the capital here with all the basic needs and yet Pitas has been abandon by the authorities.
Why? I have no answers to this for now.. yet Malaysia seems to be known as a developed nation, or is it?
Please help us get some solar lights into this villages and help me open the doors to get more NGOs into this area – Pitas needs our help.
I want to be back in Pitas again to raise more awareness on this. Only with your help.
SHARE or Give Light
