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We are pleased to inform that SDI in collaboration with the University of Technology Sarawak and Sarawak Museum Department will be organizing a public talk on ‘From Berlin to Sarawak: Augmented and Virtual Reality in Art and Culture’.

The session comprises of presentations by Professor Jürgen Sieck (HTW-Berlin), Professor Christian Kassung (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Associate Professor Dr Tariq Zaman (University of Technology Sarawak). The speakers are collaborating for the last 5 years and developing Augmented and Virtual Reality tools for local and indigenous contents and cultural institutions. The speakers will base the discussion on AR and VR applications that have been developed for cultural institutions, such as Mozart’s “Zauberflöte” at the Komische Oper Berlin and Mozart’s “Jupiter Symphony” at the Konzerthaus Berlin and will describe contextsensitive products and services for museums and concert halls developed at the INKA research group. From the long list of examples, the speakers will take a closer look and demonstrate some of the tools, such as the AR children’s book “The Dancing Tortoise”, the AR book for Oroo’ sign language of Penans and a visit to the 4th (Italian) Symphony by Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

Scan the QR code to register or via this link https://tinyurl.com/yc8e9z8x

Date/Day : 5th December 2022 (Monday)
Time : 9:30am (Registration starts at 9 am)
Venue : Auditorium, Borneo Cultures Museum, Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, 93400 Kuching

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Children who ‘lost out’ in need of attention
by Neville Timothy Sanders

KUCHING: A special state task should be formed to address issues children had faced during the Covid-19 pandemic when normal schooling was disrupted and classes were held online.

A facilitator from the Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) Gill Raja highlighted the need on the back of worrying findings by the Asian Development Bank.
According to research done by ADB in April 2021, Malaysia registered one of the highest learning losses among Asian developing nations.

This is a very worrying trend, and we fear if something is not done, the children would be facing much more difficulties, growing up, she said

Gill raised the issue during an engagement on the challenges of education among children in Sarawak on Friday via Zoom and live streaming on Facebook.

Organised by Sarawak Development Institute the “Leaving No Child, after Covid-19 Lockdown: Addressing the Challenges in Sarawak session was delivered by Gill.
She said that there were a lot of skills that children could not master due to Covid-19 especially when classes were held online, in addition to internet problems especially in the rural area.

“And not only that, poverty was also one of the main issues because the children did not have any tools to learn the skills they wanted to.

“Especially when it came to online class sessions, they did not have any technology such as laptops or mobile phone to join the classes as well,” she said.

Gill said teachers played an important role and that they should also assist and support the children as well.
“I encourage every community to voice out any problems to any association on this matter,” she added.

Former lecturer: More needed to address impact of learning loss due to Covid-19

KUCHING (Oct 15): More collaborative efforts between the relevant government departments, civil societies and the communities are needed to address the
impacts on learning loss among children in Sarawak due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said Gill Raja, a former lecturer in social work from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

“One of the strengths of Sarawak is its sense of community and working together, and I think that we really have to build more of such collaborative effort at different levels (in terms of) sub-district, district, divisional and state levels.

“We will need local information quickly. We need to be able to get relevant data especially at the sub-district level,” she said at a public talk on ‘Leaving No Child Behind After Covid-19 School Lockdown – Addressing the Challenges in Sarawak’ Friday.

She also said there is a need to provide support to pre-schools as well as early intervention programmes in schools.

She said more people were also needed to assist schools in addressing the issue, and as such, finding those people willing to help requires a creative approach.

“I have this feeling that we will have lots of young people who may not find it so easy to go to Form 6, to what they were going to do (after that), or coming out of a university and can’t find jobs immediately.

“We can get them helping (at the schools) in their own areas because they know the culture, they know the children, they probably come from the (same) schools. Also, they get work experience useful to go forward in their lives.

“Then, we may have some retired people willing to help as well. This could be done in short-term contracts. We’re talking about a year-to-year basis, as the teachers (in the schools) need all the support,” she added.

The public talk was organised by Sarawak Development Institute (SDI) conducted online via Zoom application.

EDUCATION 4.0: CURRENT OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA
Date: 28 April 2022
Venue: Webinar – Online
Time: 10:30am – 12:00pm Malaysia time

One of the Plenary tracks in the upcoming AAEC 2022 is on Education 4.0 where it will examine the new approaches in the education system to nurture and develop young talents to meet the expectation of IR4.0, especially in the engineering sector. This webinar will kickstart the preliminary discussion on this subject matter by providing an overview and understanding of Education 4.0 in Malaysia currently.

Virtual Roundtable on Sustainable Development Goals for Sarawak Local Authorities
Date: 21^st – 23^rd September 2021
Venue: Via Zoom Application
Who should attend: Local Authorities/Councils

Objectives:
• To better understand the SDGs framework as an operative framework (to localise and strategise activities and programmes under local authorities/councils with a specific focus on waste management and public health);
• To brainstorm on the specific SDGs relevant to each council/authority in relation to waste management and public health; and
• To examine each local authority’s/council’s current focus areas with regard to waste management and public health, and the challenges faced.

Focus Areas:
• Focus on highlighting the two key areas namely waste management
• Public health as important priorities for the State to be addressed by the local authorities/councils.

Targeted Outcome:
• To reach a consensus on focus areas in terms of projects and programmes to be implemented under the respective councils in the next five years under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

Participation is only via invitation only.

Dr. Henry in his presentation shared on the reforestation effort in all the degraded and deforested areas that have been designated for forest cover under the State’s policy goal to gazette 1 million hectares of Totally Protected Areas and 6 million hectares of Permanent Forest Estates. He emphasized that reforestation project is a costly exercise that requires about USD 1500 per hectare and a minimum of five continuous years to maintain the growing trees. It is only after the fifth year that the planted trees will be able to overcome the surrounding shrubs and creepers from overwhelming and strangling them.

Bearing in mind this scenario, he proposed a conceptual circular economy framework which incorporates agroforesty in the reforestation effort to combat global warming, and to provide a viable model to attract sustainable financing. The open space between rows of growing trees can be planted with crops like tapioca that has high carbohydrate content. Farmers who tend to the plants can then help to control the weeds and cut creepers that would otherwise strangle the young trees. Once the crops mature, they could be harvested and sold to production plants to convert the carbohydrates into biofuel as a source of renewable energy. In turn, the carbon dioxide generated by the production plants and transportation will be absorbed by the plants growing between the rows of trees. In short, planting the commercial crops for conversion into renewable energy will be used to offset the high cost of reforestation through this proposed circular economy framework.

In order to make this concept more feasible, there is a need for Sarawak to look into a road map to formulate policies to promote biofuel generation in reforestation projects, proper research and development to generate renewable energy from plants, and sustainable financing mechanisms.  This goal needs multiple collaborations among the state agencies, corporate players, research and civil society organisations.

He concluded that Sarawak needs to maintain a good forest cover to be used as a permanent carbon sink.  The good forest cover, in turn, will restore the efficiency of carbon sink, generate biofuel as renewable energy and put Sarawak at a competitive advantage to remove GHG at scale. During the question and answer session, among the questions asked were on the factors contributed to the lowest forest cover and biomass stock in 2007 to 2009, how to identify secondary forest areas that are particularly suitable for reforestation, role of the communities living in areas identified for reforestation, how does Sarawak fare in engaging in proactive carbon sensitive policies compared to West Malaysia and Sabah.

The special edition Brown Bag Talk on Sarawak Covid-19 vaccination campaign via Zoom received an overwhelming response where 370 participants joined to listen to YBhg. Prof. Datu Dr. Andrew Kiyu Dawie Usop, Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and also the Chairman of the Sarawak Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Group (SCoVAG) in the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee as well as member of SDI, Dr. Radziah Mohamad, Public Health Specialist, Principal Assistant Director, Family Health Development Section, Sarawak State Health Department and Haji Aziman Mahdi, Principal Assistant Director, Health Promotion Section, Sarawak State Health Department.

Prof. Datu Dr. Andrew in his presentation shared on the goal from the medical perspective on managing the Covid-19 pandemic which are to eliminate the pandemic and to control the transmission so that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Professor Datu Dr. Andrew opined that the non-pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) have not been as effective in the 2021 compared to in 2020 because the virus is currently present all over Sarawak (both in urban and rural areas).

The current rise in cases in Sarawak was due to outbreaks and clusters created by super spreaders (individuals), lack of compliance in SOPs in the workplaces and social events like weddings, birthdays, parties and funerals. In order to reduce the transmission, he urged for everyone to keep practicing the non-pharmaceutical approach such as wearing face masks, to social distance, to always clean and disinfect and to frequently wash hands.  There is a need for a combined personal responsibilities and shared responsibilities to combat the pandemic.  Vaccine is the new and final barrier in the shared responsibilities in controlling and ending Covid-19 pandemic.   He also shared on the latest concern on the side effect of vaccination which is the blood clots issue. However, the issue of getting blood clot due to Covid 19 vaccine is very rare. From the poll questions conducted, majority of the participants were worried about the side effect of the vaccine and they do not know what the side effects are.

Dr. Radziah shared on the Covid 19 vaccination programme for Sarawak. The objectives of the vaccination plan are to protect frontline personnel from the COVID-19 infection, to minimize morbidity and mortality among high-risk group, to create herd immunity for economic recovery and to control the outbreak. Dr. Radziah also shared on the number of eligible populations that will be vaccinated and the targeted vaccination timeline for Sarawak. Among the platforms available to register for the vaccination are My Sejahtera App, JKJAV website www. vaksincovid.gov.my, JKJAV Hotline 1 800 888 828, manual registration via residents’ office, community leaders, YBs and government health clinics/ hospitals. From the poll questions asked, majority of participants have registered for the vaccination via My Sejahtera app and manual registration via residents’ office, community leaders and YBs. Quite a significant number also registered twice both using online systems (MySejahtera App) and manual registration.

Haji Aziman shared on the communication strategy plan in promoting the vaccination campaign in order to improve positive perceptions on COVID-19 vaccine. Among the communication channels used are via television, radio, banner, bunting, flyer, newspapers, social media (FB, IG, Twitter etc) and etc. From the poll question on first source of information regarding the vaccines, majority of the participants picked the Ministry of Health Malaysia’s FB and website and via social media like FB and IG.

During the interactive session, one of the issues was on the efficacy of the vaccines.  There are still new development in progress therefore there is still uncertainty whether an annual booster shot will be required.  The most important message is to get vaccination in order to control the pandemic from getting worse.

Covid-19 Management & Role of Covid-19 Vaccines
By Professor Datu Dr. Andrew Kiyu Dawie Usop
Chairman, Sarawak Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Group (SCoVAG), Sarawak Disaster Management Committee
Professor Of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (UNIMAS)

Sarawak Covid-19 Immunisation Programme
By Dr. Radziah Mohamad
Public Health Specialist, Principal Assistant Director, Family Health Development Section, Sarawak State Health Department

Strategic Communication Plan for Covid-19 Vaccine
By Haji Aziman Mahdi
Principal Assistant Director, Health Promotion Section, Sarawak State Health Department

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, various aspects of our life has been disrupted. One of them is the migration of teaching/learning activities from face-to-face to online medium. School doors around the world have been closed for several months to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 1.6 billion students in 194 countries were impacted by school closures. During this crisis, we have seen an incredible amount of large-scale efforts to use technology in support of remote learning. At the same time, this crisis has exposed the challenges for technology in education, including many inequities starting at the lack of access to computers and the internet. Due to this shift, all parties involved in the teaching/learning ecosystem face challenges and issues from various aspects.

During the talk, the challenges highlighted included the infrastructure that involves the connectivity, the equipment needed for online teaching/learning, content of teaching and the instructors’ readiness for online teaching/learning.  One of the key issues was the readiness for the shift.  Based on the poll conducted during the session, majority of the participants were not ready for the shift to online education when the Movement Control Order was announced.  However, it’s heartening to note that the readiness of the participants has improved after a year into the pandemic. The most used device for online learning polled is a smartphone/handphone and followed by a laptop.  Based on the feedback from the participants, connectivity in the rural areas remains the main challenge faced by the parents and teachers in delivering a successful conducive environment or platform for online learning.

Arising from this pandemic, there are also opportunities for all stakeholders to improve the transition into online learning/teaching.  This includes development of a proper action plan for pedagogy and content creation for online classes. The government also need to improve the internet connectivity and penetration in rural areas by providing affordable remote satellite at a reduced costs and learning devices. Although online learning/teaching is accepted as the new norm, however it will not be able to replace the face to face classroom environment which will also nurture the developmental social skills for the students.  The challenge lies in finding a balance between acquiring academic excellence without sacrificing the informal social interaction and connection.

This presentation was based on a study conducted by Associate Professor Dr. Shanti Nadarajan and her team at UNIMAS to look at the concept of folk wisdom aka ‘wit’ from two frameworks namely a predictable set of cultural practices and manipulation of language linguistic structure. Dr. Shanti shared at length on the riddling culture from the perspectives of culture linguistics and learning. She delved into the oral history and tradition where she emphasised that oral language was equally important as written languages. She also shared at length on Entelah from the semantic, pragmatic and linguistic ambiguity aspects. The study also aimed to create a coding system for assessing the ambiguity of oral riddles.

It was reported by the WHO that among 130 countries polled, 93 per cent showed devastating impacts of Covid-19 on access to mental health services. This exacerbated the already low funding of less than 2 per cent of national health budgets allocated for mental health. The report also noted that over 60 per cent of reported disruptions to mental health services were for vulnerable segments including children and adolescents (72%), older adults (70%) and women requiring antenatal or postnatal services (61%). The presentation also touched on the indicators of mental health changes during the pandemic. These included biological changes such as muscle tension, shakiness, easily fatigued, headaches, chest tightness as well as sleep and appetite disturbances. Other concerns covered were on suicide, social stigmatisation of COVID 19 and tips how to support those experiencing mental health issues. Please watch the video recordings for further details.

The Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) is a visionary transportation using Automated Rapid Transit (ART) System. It is the 1st system in the world powered by hydrogen full cells and run on virtual tracks. The 1st phase of KUTS involves the construction of two urban lines namely the Samarahan Line and Serian Line. The whole project is expected to be fully completed by 2027. Once it is completed, the KUTS is expected to ease the traffic congestion in the Greater Kuching area, create more economic opportunities, promote green energy technology and greater mobility for the people. To know more about the KUTS, please visit Sarawak Metro’s website at mysarawakmetro.com.

This presentation highlighted WWF-Malaysia’s numerous conservation projects in Sabah and Sarawak (especially in the Heart of Borneo area) specifically in Ba’ Kelalan, Long Semadoh, Baleh National Park, Song-Katibas, and Batang Ai as well as the organised efforts based on their three pillars of Protect, Produce, and Restore. This is in line with one of their Ten Aspirations on their pathways towards protecting and restoring nature by 2030 which is 50% of Malaysia’s terrestrial landmass being legislated for the conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem services as well as for the wellbeing of local communities. Please watch the presentation recording to find out more.