My Experience — IGNITERS SABAH 2017 (Part 1)

(Igniters The PRISM Movement, or just Igniters for short, is an outreach programme for the rural area community in Pulau Banggi, in collaboration with Muslim Care, from 19th to 22nd of July 2017).

Words could not describe how grateful I am to be a part of the Igniters team, to be able to help the locals in Pulau Banggi especially Kampung Selangan and Kampung Malingu. Honestly speaking, I was nervous and scared of the conditions and surroundings that I will face in Pulau Banggi, as I am lucky enough to have been living a comfortable life ever since I was a child. ‘Experience is the best teacher,’ they say, and hence that is why I decided to apply to become a volunteer in Pulau Banggi, indirectly for Igniters PRISM as well.

Photo by Sébastien Jermer on Unsplash

Pulau Banggi, which is the biggest island in Malaysia (I bet you didn’t know that!), is located at the tip of Sabah. Before this programme I had no idea of the existence of Pulau Banggi and hence its location. (Source: Wikipedia)

There were a total of 37 volunteers who signed up for the programme, and our mission was to help the locals in the two villages mentioned in terms of medical aid, facilities and also to give away donations. Only 26 volunteers managed to join the programme, which consists of equal numbers of 13 males and females.

We started our journey on the 19th of July (Wednesday), where all 26 volunteers are first gathered at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA). After making sure everyone is present and all the bags are loaded, we took a three-hour bus ride to Kudat, and an hour and a half ferry ride to Pulau Banggi. Another hour and a half after that is spent by taking car rides to Kampung Selangan, where we will be staying for the next two days. We arrived there at about 4pm.

This is the recently-built surau in Kampung Selangan, where all volunteers stayed for the past week.

Since we spent almost the whole day in all kinds of transportations, the activity for our first night is just a bonding session between volunteers, so that all of us can get to know each other better before we start the real deal on the next day.

We spent our second day in Kampung Malingu, which is a village literally on the sea. It took about 15 minutes to get to the village from the jetty near Kampung Selangan. The locals there use boats as their primary transportation.

The view on the way to Kampung Malingu. It was my first boat ride and I loved it. The breeze was amazing.

The woods used as a pathway to the houses are quite fragile but yet strong enough to hold our weight. Thankfully no one fell into the sea.[/caption]

(to be continued…)