KOTA SAMARAHAN: Universiti Malaysia SarawaK (Unimas) in collaboration with Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has successfully advocated its Telecentre Programme for Orang Asli (Tapoa) in Peninsular Malaysia.
The programme was undertaken by the university’s Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovation (ISITI) to reduce the digital gap faced by the Orang Asli communities.
It is aimed at developing community telecentres as a platform to leverage the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for socio-economic development of the local community, building capacities, identifying programmatic gaps, and impacting social policy.
“This is one of the many areas that have caught the attention of researchers from universities worldwide. Unimas has long advocated for this cause as can be seen through our constant commitment towards working with indigenous communities throughout Malaysia,” said Unimas Vice Chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi.
Kadim, officiated at the handover of Tapoa in West Malaysia at Unimas, yesterday.
A team of researchers from Unimas, led by Associate Professor Dr Poline Bala, has been working together with the community on the transformation-driven project over the past seven years.
“The project … is now in the infrastructure delivery phase. The telecentres at POS Sinderut and POS Lenjang in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, and POS Gob and POS Balar in Gua Musang, Kelantan will become knowledge centres which are crucial for the continued sustainability of the centres in the communities,” said Poline.
With the availability of the infrastructure and facilities at these sites, the programme teams then worked closely with the community on six programmes, namely, health, training, education, agribusiness, tourism and indigenous knowledge, which were specifically designed to meet the needs of the communities.
The handover ceremony marked the successful completion of the phase, and local community champions will now take over the roles of empowering their respective communities towards leveraging technology to impact their lives.
Also present at the ceremony were director general of Jakoa Datuk Ajis Sitin, director of Jakoa Pahang Johari Alwi, and Jakoa IT officer Azman Ngadiron.
