Labuan oil and gas retrenched staff thanks TNB for school aid

LABUAN: Chew Jock Pheng, 47, from Sg Keling heaved a sigh of relief when her family was chosen to benefit from the school aid programme today, describing it as the unexpected that her family could hardly refuse.
She was working in a factory with a good salary, before the company ceased operation due to the slowdown of the oil and gas sector on the island last year.
"I lost my job and became a vegetable seller and my husband continues working in a flour factory, with salary just enough to cover reasonable living expenses," she told Bernama, after receiving the school aid in conjunction with the Back-to-School Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) programme, here today.
Pheng was one of the 200 mothers who received school aid for their school-going children, as part of the TNB's annual corporate social responsibility (CSR) to help lessen the financial burden of low-income parents on the island.
"I have four children, all still schooling with the eldest studying in a local university also with the government's financial help … we must thank the government for helping us," she said with sadness.
She said the school aid her family received would greatly help reduce the financial burden they face in the coming school session.
She noted that the programme helped ease her burden in buying school supplies for her other three children.
"It costs more than RM200 to purchase a complete set of supplies for a child when school starts, this help is a relief to us," Pheng said.
Her nine-year-old son, Alan Christopher Jerome, a primary student of SRJK Chung Hwa expressed thanks to TNB, as he got the new bag for when he goes to school in the next two weeks. — Bernama