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Kuala Lipis, 12 April 2017 - Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become an integral part of our lives, yet there are many rural communities who have yet to benefit from having access to technology at the tips of their fingers. Efforts have been made to reduce the digital gap faced by these communities, one such notable initiative is the “Telecentre Programme for Orang Asli (TPOA) West Malaysia”, which will showcase its very first Open Day Programme at Pos Sinderut, Pahang on 12 April 2017.
The Open Day will see the attendance of YBhg Professor Dato’ Dr. Mohamad Kadim bin Suaidi, the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Professor Mohd Fadzil bin Abdul Rahman, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Alumni, UNIMAS, community representatives including Tok Batin Harun and Mr Jali a/l Gayang.
After a successful implementation of the eBario project and its replication to four other sites in Sabah and Sarawak, the Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations (ISITI), has been once again tasked with the expansion of the telecentre model to four Orang Asli sites in West Malaysia through the TPOA project. Four selected Semai and Temiar Orang Asli settlements were identified to be part of the project, namely in Pos Sinderut and Pos Lenjang in Kuala Lipis, Pahang and Pos Gob and Pos Balar in Gua Musang, Kelantan.
The TPOA project is a community-university based initiative spearheaded by UNIMAS in partnership with Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA), Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and Ministy of Rural and Regional Development (KKLW). This programme aims at developing community telecentres as a platform to leverage on the usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for socioeconomic development of the local community, building capacities, identifying programmatic gaps, and impacting social policy.
The team of researchers from UNIMAS, led by Associate Professor Dr. Poline Bala, has been working together with the community on this important and timely transformation-driven project over the past four years. The project, which started with a needs analysis of the communities at the chosen sites in 2013, has now seen the completion of the infrastructure delivery phase which is built on ISITI’s homegrown optimised telecentre model. The telecentres at all four sites will now play the role as knowledge centres, which is crucial towards the continued sustainability of these telecentres within the communities.
With the availability of the infrastructure and facilities at these sites, the programme teams will now work hand-in-hand with the community in the up-coming phase of delivering six programmes which have been specifically designed to meet with the needs of the communities. This open day ceremony marks the move to this crucial phase whereby all the stakeholders will need to be engaged towards ensuring the promised deliverables of this project will come into fruitation. It is hoped that through this initiative, the empowered community will now fully exploit technology to bring about a meaningful impact in their lives.
