IN a place like Kuala Selangor, where fishing and farming are the mainstay of the economy, getting children to go to school is a challenge.
Incomes are low for farmers and fishermen, so the priority is to get the young ones to start work as soon as possible to supplement the family income.
But Bukit Melawati state assemblyman Juwairiya Zulkifli is trying to change that. In fact, she has made education a cornerstone of her campaign in order to raise the standard of living of the people in her constituency.
She has set herself the task of creating awareness of the need for education and the advantages it offers.
It has been a challenge. “Many of the children drop out of school at an early age to help their families make ends meet,” she told theSun recently.
Despite the fact that teachers also make up a significant part of the population, after fishermen and farmers, it has not made a lot of difference to parents.
“My job is to look into the welfare of each family, and help them find ways to put their children through school,” she said.
Despite the difficulties, Juwairiya said she is beginning to see the fruits of her labour. “I have succeeded in getting many of them back to school, at both the primary and secondary levels,” she said.
Juwairiya, a first-time state assemblyman, won the Bukit Melawati seat on a PKR ticket in the May 2018 general election.
Apart from getting children back to school, she is also working to make schools more conducive for learning.
One of her pet projects is to ensure that the children get clean water.
“So far, we have managed to equip 10 schools and a surau with water filters. It may be a small contribution but it has a huge impact,” she said. “It means that the children no longer have to carry big (and heavy) bottles of water to school or become dehydrated.”
Juwairiya’s efforts to promote education cuts across all levels. She has made many contributions, in cash and kind, to kindergartens, and every student who makes it to university is given a RM500 to RM1,000 incentive.
However, the people who drive the economy are not forgotten. For the fishermen, there is now a floating jetty in Kampung Asahan that was built with a RM100,000 grant from the state government. This enables the fishermen to go out to sea and land their catch safely.
“The people have been asking for this for two years before the state finally gave the grant,” she said.
Apart from that, she has initiated a programme to upgrade homes and to turn Bandar Melawati into a heritage area and a tourist attraction.
But for 35-year-old Juwairiya, all these challenges pale in comparison with the challenge of getting acceptance as a political leader at her age. “It’s difficult to get people to accept a young leader. But my voters have given me their trust so I will now have to deliver the results.”
