The Partners of Community Organisation in Sabah (PACOS Trust), a community based organisation, was formed in 1993 to support the rural indigenous communities alongside empowering them with the knowledge and resources to live comfortable lives.
PACOS Trust is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
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PACOS Trust is one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023, an annual award by The Star and Yayasan Gamuda that recognises selfless Malaysian unsung heroes who make a positive impact on society and promote unity among the people.
For more SGHA videos, visit https://www.sgha.com.my/
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Ann Lassimbang. I'm from Pakostras.
00:03 Pakostras is one of the winners of the STAR Golden Hearts Award 2023.
00:11 When Ann Lassimbang participated in a study on poverty in Sabah more than three decades ago,
00:25 she was struck by the state of indigenous communities in rural areas.
00:30 When we graduated, we had this exposure to a few areas in Sabah, in the rural area.
00:37 Because I came from Pinampang, more or less okay, kami punya family.
00:40 We were educated in the university, but we were sent to Pitas, we were sent to Keningau.
00:46 And we realised that our community, at that time we were very young, and realised that there's a big gap.
00:52 That incident triggered us and we thought, well, we are indigenous people, it's our own people.
00:58 At that time, being young, we just went into doing some work through Pakostras.
01:04 Together with her sister Jenny and Felix Tongkol, Lassimbang began the community work informally in 1983.
01:12 Forty years later, the partners of community organisations in Sabah or Pakostras have about 60 personnel,
01:19 30 as full-time workers and another 30 working on the ground.
01:23 Pakostras is a community-based organisation.
01:26 We do not have membership, but we work in what we call network.
01:32 In all the communities that we work, we don't work with individuals,
01:35 but the first thing that we do when we do community organising is to form a group.
01:39 And eventually that group becomes an organisation and they can register themselves.
01:44 So we work as a network of organisations, so they become our partner.
01:49 Lassimbang says various initiatives are taken up to empower the indigenous communities for a better future.
01:56 The programme, such as socio-economy, where we teach farmers on agro-ecology,
02:02 that means farming more related to, who are more eco-friendly,
02:07 so that they can improve not only livelihood, but we also want food security.
02:12 But realise one of our challenges was marketing, because these communities are very far in the kampung.
02:19 One of the ideas that came forth was also food processing,
02:22 where some of these produce that they have, such as ginger, turmeric, that can last longer,
02:29 Pakostras can become the collection centre and then we can sell them to the town nearby.
02:35 Communities are also taught ways to refine their daily items.
02:46 For instance, big baskets used by the indigenous communities during harvest activities
02:51 will be redesigned and utilised as handicrafts.
02:54 Land rights and resource management programmes are also initiated by Pakostras
03:05 to raise awareness among the rural indigenous communities on their rights.
03:10 The other things that we do is land, territory and also resources management.
03:16 Because these communities are very dependent on the resources around them,
03:20 and the resources, especially water catchment, is important because
03:24 they do not have pipe water going into their house.
03:27 So we also have to work on managing their water catchment, their forest,
03:32 so that they have access to clean water, and those people who have traditional knowledge
03:38 that relate to looking after the rivers, help them to re-strengthen their tagal system.
03:45 One of the most recent ventures taken up by Pakostras is the Gua Skopo Sison Centre or GKC,
03:52 also known as the School of Life.
03:55 Activities taught in GKC include rearing tilapia, livestock, composting,
04:00 as well as planting various produce.
04:03 We find the youths are all migrating to the city,
04:06 so we thought we must do something for the youth.
04:08 So we also started a youth training centre for those youths who have dropped out of school,
04:13 so that they will continue to learn about agroecology,
04:17 they learn about building enterprises for themselves,
04:20 and they go back to the community and have that self-confidence and help their communities.
04:25 Pakostras also guides the community through education with various community learning centres,
04:31 or CLCs around Sabah, focusing on early education for children from indigenous communities,
04:36 alongside other empowerment activities for women and youth.
04:40 There are currently 25 active CLCs, with six providing early childhood education.
04:46 Rufina Koyo is a coordinator at one of the centres.
04:49 The early childhood education is like a 3M class,
04:58 reading, writing and counting.
05:01 This is an early preparation so that when they go to school,
05:07 they can write or read.
05:10 In the CLC, the mothers have a socio-economic group,
05:18 where they meet to learn how to make crafts.
05:25 There is also a CLC in Pitas, the Kamrus tribe of Menenun.
05:31 The CLC is a place for them to learn together.
05:35 They use the place to learn their mother tongue,
05:41 and learn about their music tradition.
05:45 As one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award 2023,
05:49 Lassi Bang says it is a great honour with Pakostras having been around for many years.
05:55 This award is very good for us.
05:57 We have been around for so many years,
06:00 but this is the first time that we are winning such an award,
06:04 and there is a lot of attention given to us.
06:06 We are very happy that our work has been highlighted,
06:08 not only in Sabah, but in Malaysia.
06:11 We feel that it will have an impact,
06:13 so that people will know more about the work that we are doing.
06:16 And maybe we can also be an inspiration to other people,
06:20 so we have more groups, organisations doing the work that we are doing.
06:24 So that's our hope.
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